Leicester City suffered a frustrating defeat to Aston Villa as Leicester’s defensive flaws were once again exposed. A double from Villa defender Ezri Konsa was enough to seal the victory for the home side after Harvey Barnes opened the scoring earlier in the game.
Harvey Barnes back to his best
While the Foxes struggled at the back, the LCFC winger was a silver lining in what was a disappointing result. He struggled in the early stages of this season as he returned from a knee injury he sustained in February.
However, Barnes now looks back to his best and was a menace on the left-hand side against Aston Villa. He produced a cool finish in the 14th minute as he delicately guided the ball into the bottom corner to give the Foxes the lead on Sunday.
In the first half, Barnes combined beautifully with fellow academy product Luke Thomas to cause all sorts of trouble to Villa’s defence. After struggling to find a spot in the starting side earlier in the season, he is back at his best and putting in performances reminiscent of his form last season before his campaign was ended prematurely.
Barnes’ dribbling ability was on full show against Aston Villa, with the winger creating chances for himself and fellow Leicester players. He dominated the opening half of the game with the majority of attacks going through him, however he unfortunately was not able to have that same impact in the second half as the home side seized control of the game.
Leicester City’s zonal marking needs to end
There was once a time under Brendan Rodgers where Leicester City had the best defence in the league in terms of dealing with set-pieces. Those days are long gone and the east Midlands side are now a shadow of their former selves, as they boast the worst defensive record from set-pieces in the Premier League.
This season, the Foxes have one of the worst defensive records and have kept just the one clean sheet, and quite frankly when you consider the performance they put up against Villa. It seems highly unlikely that things will change anytime soon.
One of the major causes for this poor record is the zonal marking system that is deployed by Rodgers. Villa’s second goal exposed the major flaws that are prevalent when choosing to defend in this manner.
As the ball was sent into the box, Konsa was able to find some room in behind Caglar Soyuncu who subsequently, was left in no-mans-land attempting to cover Konsa while jumping for the ball. If Rodgers continues to persist with zonal marking, rather than the more traditional man-to-man marking system, than you can expect Leicester to drop more points this season thanks to set-pieces.
Patson Daka can fill the Jamie Vardy role
Leicester City’s summer signing was given his first start in the Premier League and although he didn’t get on the scoresheet, his impact was felt. From the opening minutes Daka was pressing the Villa defence, subsequently forcing them into mistakes.
His immense pace, and Jamie Vardy-esque runs in behind meant that he was a constant threat on the counter. The Zambian striker assisted Barnes for the first goal as he dribbled past two defenders before feeding through the LCFC winger.
As Leicester City prepare for one of the busiest December schedules in the league, Daka will be a massive asset to the side as we can expect to see Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho rotated throughout the Christmas period.
With Vardy turning 35 next month, he can no longer be expected to start every game of the season. Yet having a player with such similar traits and playing style to him, means that benching Vardy will not have the same impact on the squad that it once used to.