Leicester City scraped to a 2-1 victory against bottom side Norwich City, with the Foxes making hard work against one of the pre-season relegation favourites.
Although the Foxes have recorded 6 points out of 9, none of the performances have been particularly convincing. Nevertheless, a win is a win and the ability to grind out a result is a much-needed trait of a successful squad.
Here are the player ratings that reflect a poor performance despite a good result. For context, a ‘6’ is an average display.
Player ratings:
Kasper Schmeichel: An OK display, his kicking was hit-and-miss as per usual. Shot-stopping was mostly straightforward but made one good parry from Lees-Melous. Perhaps fortunate with the disallowed header as there was no way he was saving it even without Cantwell’s intervention. 6/10
Ricardo Pereira: Started brightly, showing great pace and vision to set up the first goal but unfortunately injured himself in the process. Hopefully, his injury is not too serious. 7/10
Çağlar Söyüncü: Better than against West Ham, although that’s hardly an achievement. His tendency to make mistakes without a vocal partner is a real issue- one of which cost Leicester a penalty. His passing was erratic too, which put the Foxes in real trouble. 5/10
Daniel Amartey: Much more assured than his Turkish teammate Söyüncü. Amartey once again carried out the defensive basics impeccably, winning his headers and stepping out nicely a couple of times. Passing was better but remains a work-in-progress. 7/10
Luke Thomas: A good performance from the youngster who coped with the physical battle apart from getting skinned once at the end of the game. His passing is good, although he needs to refine his crossing. 7/10
Marc Albrighton: An industrious performance without much quality on the ball. Having said this, he got the vital winner with a good drilled finish into the corner. 6/10
Youri Tielemans: At times his class shone through with some gorgeous threaded passes in behind and between the lines. At other times he let himself down, especially as he tired in the second half. 6/10
Wilfried Ndidi: A typical ‘Ndidi’ performance in every aspect. Wilf was excellent at breaking up several dangerous Norwich transitions but some of his passing was a little wayward. 7/10
Harvey Barnes: Disappointing and he has exhausted the patience of many FPL players for sure, including me. On the rare occasions he beat Aarons, he lacked either decision making or end-product to punish the Canaries. Much improvement is needed. 4/10
James Maddison: He was OK but again nothing special from a player that has special moments in his locker. Missed two presentable chances against his former club. 6/10
Jamie Vardy: The most influential player today despite only registering 18 touches, and barely touching it in the 2nd half. Scored the first with a brilliant finish before setting up Marc Albrighton for the winner. His pressing and pace frightened the Norwich back line and posed a threat on the counter. 8/10
Substitutes
Timothy Castagne: Had his hands full with the lively Rashica who got the better of him on a couple of occasions, whilst he was fortunate to escape a booking. Clearly still shaking off the cobwebs after injury, but like most of the players- it was an indifferent display. 6/10
Kelechi Iheanacho: Made a difference going forward and played a big part in the second goal with some nice interplay, but then comically missed a near-open goal which would have made the victory safe. 6/10
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall: Enthusiastic and intelligent to help ease pressure at the end, whilst he should have got a debut assist. 6/10
Referee
Now, normally the referee doesn’t get a player rating, but today the performance of Robert Jones merited an extra afterthought. We all know that the referees have an extremely difficult job, but Jones today was truly hapless. Usually, the referee gets scapegoated for a loss, but Leicester’s win can’t hide the facts. Throughout the game, the ref didn’t have a clue at what he was doing- relying on crowds to make decisions. For that, he receives the lowest rating in today’s scorings. 2/10
Leicester City round-up
The curse of the injuries continues to haunt Leicester City with Ricardo being forced off and Castagne suffering a dislocated shoulder (although this was fixed). This is in addition to Ryan Bertrand being taken ill before the game despite having recovered from COVID-19.
Leicester’s lack of attacking creativity remains a concern- they have only registered 2.57 xG in three games which is in the bottom five of the league. In the other direction, the Foxes are conceding quite a high volume of chances, ranking 5th for xGA. Hopefully the former will be remedied with the signing of a new right-winger although this is looking dubious at the time of writing.
All of this comes before the international break, where LCFC will hopefully welcome several defenders (Evans, Ricardo, Vestergaard, Bertrand) back to fitness. Certainly, with current defensive frailties, a switch to a back three against the Champions may be amongst Rodgers’ considerations.