A Strong Leicester City line-up cruised into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a clinical display against Championship side Stoke City.
With over half a century since the foxes last made an appearance in the FA Cup final, they embarked on their 52nd attempt at matching their best ever performance in the competition. A cold afternoon at Stoke is never something to relish but Leicester City coped fantastically against a languid Potteries side.
Up until the 34th minute it was a fairly even contest with Sam Vokes having the best chance blazing over the bar. But in that 34th minute James Justin hit a contender for goal of the season, cutting inside onto his left foot and smashing an incredible right foot curling shot high into the roof of the net.
As is customary, Leicester grew in confidence and took over the game in the second half making the most of generous space on the right to engineer a series of chances. Marc Albrighton scored a fine goal on the 59th minute – his first for two seasons. Then in the 79th Ayoze Perez profited from good work from Belgians Castagne and Praet to notch his second goal of the season.
All before Harvey Barnes rounded off another decent performance with his third goal in four games. Leicester City march on to the next round towards another inevitable quarter final defeat to Chelsea (disclaimer – hope i’m wrong).
Brendan Rodgers doesn’t rotate for the sake of it
With Jamie Vardy and James Maddison effectively given some downtime to recover from a hard season of fatigue and injuries it was perhaps expected that many of the fringe and recovering players might be given some game time.
The likes of Caglar Soyuncu, Hamza Choudhury and Luke Thomas could be forgiven for thinking they may make the starting eleven. But Brendan Rodgers has shown that with the right recovery time and available players he will play his strongest team and only changed the two mentioned players from a very strong eleven.
Strangely after a manic December, Leicester had only played one game in the last twelve days. A luxury that Rodgers has barely had since the season kicked off. Resting Vardy and Maddison made sense given the management of their injury issues.
It also backed up Rodgers’ belief in recovery times after being unfairly criticised for resting many of his players against Crystal Palace with an insane 48 hour rest period. He now has the luxury of a week until the next league game, let’s see how many changes he makes from this win. next we look at how the east Midlanders’ wide players are key.
Leicester City’s wide players are the key
I’ve mentioned it in the past, but the wide players are a huge part of Leicester City’s game plan and their development is proving to be a thorn to opposing teams. It’s certainly telling that all of the goals involved Leicester’s key wide men in some way. Harvey Barnes once again teased full backs with his pace and close control.
However, racing past him today was James Justin whose game is emerging so well that a senior England call up is surely possible. Especially when he can show amazing shooting ability like today. On the opposite side we seem to be going through an Albrighton version of a Marconaissance, with Marc Albrighton becoming an undroppable talent with his recent extraordinary form. His set pieces left much to be desired but his goal and much of his work on the right was exemplary.
This is only complimented by Timothy Castagne, whose return to the team is much needed, Castagne is constantly pushing into attacking positions and causing defenders trouble with his wing play and even set up Ayoze Perez‘s goal. Opposition teams assessing Leicester’s dangers prior to games will no doubt try and nullify this area if possible. But then Brendan Rodgers nearly has Ricardo Pereira fit and then the Premier League will really be in trouble.
Stoke should serve as a warning to Leicester fans
As us Leicester fans bask in the glory of another round of FA cup, Europa League and third place in the Premier League it would be worth remembering how everything can quickly change.
Stoke were in the Premier League for ten consecutive seasons before relegation in 2018. Those with shorter memories won’t remember that in 2014 when Leicester returned to the top flight for the first time in ten years Stoke was a place to fear.
The comparison probably isn’t like for like as Leicester’s impact in the Premier League has been far reaching. But with only 7 seasons completed so far and Leicester’s history one of a yo-yo club we must be careful in how we see the future. Yes we should dream of breaking up the Premier League’s established teams.
Though, we should also be grateful to be be playing top flight football at all. Leicester tend to average around ten consecutive seasons in their divisions before moving up or down. Let’s see where we are in another three years; hopefully regular Champions League football and some more silverware.