FoL’s reaction to what has been a basketball game for Leicester City. This was a battle of minds between Brendan Rodgers and Marcelo Bielsa – Bielsa won.
A match of such gravity for the two clubs can almost be seen seething through the cracks. In my match preview, I described Leeds United’s defence as Swiss Cheese, and explained the difference between the Foxes’ style and Bielsa’s style as one of possession hunger.
Join FoL as we react to what has been a basketball game for Leicester City, one where the Swiss cheese was well covered by Kalvin Phillips. This was a battle of minds between Brendan Rodgers and Bielsa. Read through the match centre while reading this article to get a sense of how it felt writing this live during the match.
Leicester City and the first half curse
Twelve minutes in the flying Foxes break intricately on the turnover, a great link-up play between Marc Albrighton and Harvey Barnes. LCFC looked brilliant once they managed to get passed the midfield covering line and onto the defensive line, the Leeds centre-backs were not fully aware. However, the Foxes were broken on the turnover, an interception of a James Maddison pass led to a typical Bielsa goal.
A fluid off the ball movement, direct and fast passing play, completely bypasses the midfield and rounds the defensive line. Fantastic play and fantastic goal.
A deluge of offside goal chances followed, the first should have been taken by Barnes and would not have been, instead Perez took the shot and scored from an offside position. Leeds then got a chance from a corner which was offside, pretty obvious offside if you ask me.
Ricardo Pereira was brought on for Castagne, hardly involved in the game for much of the first half; disappointing for the renowned player. After this point, there was probably only one good chance which required a massive amount of awareness and reactivity from Illan Meslier to prevent another goal from a turnover.
The marvellous three to two
At the stroke of the second half, on did trot the marvelous trio for the Foxes. Caglar Soyuncu, Wesley Fofana, and Jonny Evans did become the best back three in the league. Energetic in the press, composed under pressure, and able to start the transition to attack with smart forward runs.
This is what we saw, and a few breakthroughs occurred thanks to smart interplay. For the most part, they were sound defensively, providing the much needed balance to deal with Leeds. This changed.
Around the 68th minute, Leicester City were getting plenty of opportunities, but they could not find the final pass or the final shot to put the game in their control. Tielemans – a fantastic player, the beaming light of hope in this game, and a future captain – Barnes, Justin, all shooting straight into Meslier’s hands. Then, the Bamford goal.
What we saw from then on was constant fouling of LCFC players by Leeds to disrupt the possession-hungry ‘BrendanBall‘. The pressure kept on building for Leicester, creating opportunities from corners and turnovers – a goal was on the cards. The Swiss cheese looked vulnerable.
So, on did trot the second Turk. Under. Fofana brought off to return to a back four and a front three; creativity and goal-scoring instincts were needed. The 80th minute marched on, and clever fouls continued.
This was a frustrating watch. Leicester should have made a chance count by this point. ‘BrendanBall‘ looks defeated. Every single Leeds goal came from a silly turnover, their fluid off the ball movement, and a direct pass. Very poor. Maybe we need to bring back Benkovic?
In my match preview, I claimed LCFC could win this if they got passed the midfield with or without Vardy, that we could score goals by using intricate passing to take players out of the game. Well, one team followed that advice, and it was not Leicester. Onto the next game, Foxes. Must improve. A lot.