What we learned from Leicester youths’ victory and defeat

The U23 side is particularly poor at retaining leads, despite bringing in Bayli Spencer-Adams, Ronny Nelson, and Lewis Brunt in the previous transfer window. The three have performed well, but the defensive shape has been disorganised at times.

Nevertheless, Kian Pennant, Maswanhise, Marcal-Madivadua, Kasey McAteer, Popov, Sammy Braybrooke, Ben Grist, and Brad Young have performed well despite inconsistencies in position, formation, and style.

It is clear to almost anyone that Maswanhise is on the rise and having already been involved in senior side training, is likely to be selected by Rodgers one day or another. The same can be said for Grist and Benjamin Nelson.

The youthful talent on display during those matches suggests our development and academy teams are improving thanks to smart investments and better scouting in recent years. This should continue, though perhaps nowhere near as fast as the growth of the wealthiest club’s youth setups.

Inconsistency and shape

For the U23’s, they are now sitting 10th in the Premier League 2 table, only one point of being 8th. It is good to see they are not too far off their nearest rivals, but they have now lost more matches than they have won in the competition. That is extremely poor to see.