Life, death and Leicester City injuries. At the moment, these seem like the only three things constant in an uncertain world.
As if the injury to Jonny Evans wasn’t enough, the Foxes have now lost their French starlet Wesley Fofana. To be perfectly honest, the health and safety of ‘Little Wes’ is paramount, and matters of football come second. This is reflected in how Leicester’s dominant win over Villarreal became irrelevant after Fofana was stretchered off.
As this is strictly a match review, some summary of the match will have to occur. Having watched it alongside 17,000 other Foxes fans, we were treated to a largely stellar performance by the boys in blue. Leicester started slowly for the first 15 minutes but subsequently began to assert their authority over the ‘Yellow Submarine’ and dominate possession. This was met with an increasing number of fouls by frustrated Villarreal players, with Maddison a common target.
Eventually, LCFC made the breakthrough from a set-piece won by Maddison (shock horror!), and expertly delivered by Ryan Bertrand. The delivery was right onto the head of Çağlar Söyüncü who powered a bullet header into the net, sending the Foxes fans into raptures.
As if things couldn’t get any better, minutes later Harvey Barnes raced away down the left and ruthlessly finished past Sergio Asenjo to double Leicester’s lead. Another assist from Bertrand, and another clinical finish from the electric Barnes who looked in fine fettle on his 2nd appearance after injury.
In the 2nd period, Leicester City started as they left off. Just a few minutes after the restart, Patson Daka and Dewsbury-Hall combined to set up Ayoze Pérez for an easy tap-in. Such a goal will have been great for his confidence and capped off a much-improved performance to silence his many critics. Hopefully, this revived display is the start of an Iheanacho-esque resurgence for the Spaniard.
Sadly, the game was effectively ended as a contest when Fer Nino decided to scissor-tackle Wesley Fofana, causing Leicester’s centre-back to be stretchered off. If you were thinking of watching the replay, don’t, as it’s not very nice to see and gets worse every time you watch.
Throughout the game, the referee Matt Donohue didn’t help matters, showing his inexperience. He lost control of the game, failing to curb the increasingly heavy fouls with cards, which helped lead to the flashpoint incident.
Yes, Fer Nino should take full responsibility for his actions but firmer refereeing could have prevented such situations. Furthermore, how Donohue didn’t send off Nino for his wild scissor-motion tackle is just another mystery life throws up.
After this calamity, Brendan Rodgers wisely decided to withdraw most of the first-team players, and we saw many substitutes that disrupted the flow of the game. As expected, Leicester’s performance dropped off and in the half-hour following, Villarreal managed to pull two goals back.
Firstly to rub salt into the wounds, Fer Nino got on the scoresheet after a quickly taken free-kick. Predictably, this was met by a chorus of boos and choice words by the Leicester faithful.
Then a Danny Ward error gifted Villarreal a second goal, although by this time no one really cared about the result. That is, except the Villarreal players who were begging the referee for more time after he blew his whistle.
Whilst there was applause for the Leicester players, the Villarreal ones were roundly heckled. In truth, they had done as much as they could to deserve it, with continuous playacting (even after Fofana’s injury), and that’s not even getting onto their insensitive use of images on their Twitter page.
A controlled Leicester City rant
When Fer Nino went into scissor tackle Fofana, everyone inside the KPS was left in shock as Fofana lay in a crumpled heap. When Leicester finally persuaded Villarreal to put the ball out of play, it was clear something was desperately wrong. As the severity of the situation came to light, the concern became mixed with anger at the striker Fer Nino. Let’s break down the situation to understand what really happened.
Given Fofana had left a little bit on Nino minutes earlier, he clearly wanted revenge. At best it was an act of petulant frustration, at worst pre-meditated assault. What’s more disappointing is how Villarreal themselves were victims of a horror challenge just days before. You’d have thought Nino would have known better, but clearly not unless he had been living under a rock over the last week.
There was still time for damage limitation on the part of Villarreal, yet Unai Emery failed to take him off, waiting until Nino had got onto the scoresheet. Leicester fans may remember Yohan Benalouane’s wild tackle on Stephen Warnock a few years ago, which led to the Tunisian being instantly substituted by Craig Shakespeare. Clearly, the same should have happened here, and it’s mystifying how neither the referee nor Emery took any action.
Yes, the player has apologised after severe backlash, but it’s a pretty derisory apology and cuts no ice with many Leicester fans. Given the context of what happened before the challenge, with Fofana leaving a little bit on Nino, I find it difficult to accept the idea he “never aimed to cause any harm”. I’m sure he had no intentions to break Fofana’s leg unless he’s a reincarnated Roy Keane, but this was a petty act of revenge that had no place in a pre-season friendly.
The idea of competitive nature can hardly be used as an excuse either, his side were 3-0 down at the time of the incident. Of course, he was never going to admit he intended to ‘get one back’ so we are left instead with a rather generic and copy & paste apology.
However unlikely, the severity of injury combined with the reckless nature of the tackle surely warrants a retrospective suspension. Just because it is pre-season doesn’t mean tackles like that should be allowed, they should be punished regardless. If this tackle had taken place in any competitive setting Nino would have undoubtedly received at least a three-game suspension. Therefore, it’s time for the footballing authorities to make an example out of Fer Nino and ban him for a significant period of time. Friendlies should be a chance to build fitness, not damage the careers of other players.
Needless to say, this is probably wishful thinking as Uefa/Fifa/the FA are as useful as a water jug with holes in it. Even so, we live in hope that sufficient justice is handed out for his actions and that Wesley Fofana can make a swift recovery back to his best.