Everton 1-1 Leicester: 3 things learned from Foxes draw

Vardy’s absence isn’t the only reason Leicester struggled to test Pickford

The easy assumption to make is that the currently absent Jamie Vardy would have made the difference. But this does a disservice to his Leicester City replacement Ayoze Perez who operated more as a false No.9 coming deep and collecting the ball in key areas. This was a necessary approach given Everton’s deep block and Perez worked tirelessly at his task.

Playing off the shoulder of Keane or Mina would have been tricky for Vardy and deep blocks have caused him most of his quiet games. Incidentally the last two games against Everton Vardy has been kept very quiet by the Toffees back line. Vardy has also been notably quiet in many of the game in the recent run.

Perez doesn’t have a great goalscoring record but his work here was to drag defenders out of position to enable midfield runners to find space to run into. Harvey Barnes was tricky again but frequently found Everton brick walls where he wanted to attack. Marc Albrighton is ever reliable but isn’t really the kind of player to make midfield runs. Cengiz Under may have been the more interesting option with his pace and trickery which he showed in his substitute appearance.

As good as Leicester City are, they do tend to want to walk the ball in the net, seeing long range shots as only occasionally necessary. There were frequent moments in this game when Foxes players were in the box and rather than trying to get a shot away looked for that perfect pass for the open goal finish. But given their recent joy at striking from the edge of the box in this game as well, it will be something they will need to consider. Although hipsters favourite attacking team Leeds United playing a deep block on Sunday is an unlikely occurrence they will need to be concerned with.