Last night, Leicester City played hosts to Tottenham Hotspur in the Foxes’ first Premier League game of 2022 as they hoped to continue their good home form. Instead, they produced a nightmare in one of the most painful results in recent years.
After battling through a barrage of Spurs attacks in the first half – including two fantastic goal-line clearances from Luke Thomas and Marc Albrighton – Leicester hit their opponents on the counter, resulting in the returning Patson Daka to score his third Premier League goal. The Spurs pressure eventually told and, in the 38th minute, Harry Kane scored his obligatory goal against Leicester – his 18th goal against them in 19 games.
The second half saw a much more attacking side to Leicester, and super-sub-Harvey Barnes assisted in his first involvement in the game as James Maddison scored again, his form showing no sign of stopping. Scoring in the 76th, the Foxes only needed to defend for 14 minutes and any added time. They did so until, after 5 minutes of added time, Spurs scored a heart-breaking equaliser 8 seconds from full time.
At 2-2 it was frustrating, but the Foxes had been the second-best team in the contest and had still gotten a point. The equaliser would be a dent, but not a disaster.
However, as we all know, this was not to be. A ridiculous and frankly idiotic pass from a misfiring Youri Tielemans led to a Spurs counter and Steven Bergwijn slotted his second in added time, the 90+7th minute, to snatch all three points. Cue disbelief, anger, and despair.
It was a reminder why football can be so brilliant and so heart-breaking and, for a neutral, it was utterly brilliant drama. For Leicester it was a lesson taught in the most painful of ways, that you can never be too careful, that you need to do the basics, that you have to win a game when you are only 8 seconds from the final whistle. It’s a lesson that you shouldn’t have to learn, but one that the Foxes put on themselves.
Now, contrary to what you may be thinking, this isn’t going to be 2000 words of me moaning or being heartbroken. Whilst the result still hurts, after a night’s sleep there are several positive aspects to pick out from the game. Afterall, we were winning until the very end.
This isn’t an attempt to look on the result with rose tinted glasses on, the end of the game was a true shambles and I’ll get into it, but there is – somehow – a fair few things to be cheerful about.
So, without further ado, here are the 3 things we learned from Leicester City 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur.
Jamie Vardy’s injury is a blessing in disguise
Okay, so this is a little clickbaity, but there is some truth in the matter. For years, the main criticism of Leicester’s attack is that they are too reliant on Jamie Vardy. Now, when you have a striker who is putting away 20 or more goals a season, I think it’s okay to be a little reliant on him. But, as many pundits love to point out, Vardy isn’t getting any younger, and so the East Midlander’s cannot rely on him playing and scoring week-in week-out.
Last season however, the Foxes’ top scorer wasn’t the Sheffield-born forward, instead it was the stunning form of Kelechi Iheanacho which resulted in him ending the season with 19 goals in all competitions. This was the first signs of a Leicester City who weren’t totally reliant on the goals of Jamie Vardy.
This season, the Foxes completed their task of signing a third striker: RB Salzburg’s Patson Daka. Daka’s raw pace rivals Vardy’s in his prime, as well as having the poaching instincts of the No.9. It was a slow start for the 23-year-old Zambian, but a breath-taking display in Moscow resulted in him scoring 4 goals in one game.
Still though, Vardy was first choice for Rodgers, with Iheanacho and Daka having to rely on the bench and cup competitions for their opportunities. This was until Vardy suffered a hamstring injury in the win against Liverpool, an injury which sees him out until March at the earliest. Add to that Kelechi Iheanacho’s absence due to AFCON, and Patson Daka finally has an extended time leading the Leicester line.
Last night he scored a lovely poacher’s goal, getting on the end of a fine move – something aided by shambolic Spurs defending – despite himself not playing as well as we usually expect. This is a good sign. We’ve already seen how devastating he is when on top form. Another goal to his tally also boosts his confidence, especially as he is just returning from injury.
It isn’t just Daka though. Smartly, Leicester haven’t signed a specific player to fill the void that Vardy will leave when he is gone. Instead, they’ve looked at his game, and have signed different players to do different aspects of his play. Instead of having one player to score all the goals, they now have a nice spread of goal scorers in the squad.
Whilst Vardy is still the club’s highest scorer this season (11 goals in 22 games), the club now has Daka (8 goals in 18 appearances), Iheanacho (4 goals and 7 assists in 22) and Harvey Barnes who, after a poor start, now has 5 goals and 5 assists. All these players can play up front – it was good to see Barnes get another chance up there last night, and each has their own strengths.
In terms of a future without Vardy, having the chance to play Daka and Iheanacho (when he returns in early February at the latest) consistently in the next few months is fantastic preparation. The fact that, at the moment, they aren’t missing him, is a huge boost.
Dewsbury-Hall is Leicester City’s future
At the start of this season, I was worried for Kiernan. He had been a stand-out player for Leicester in pre-season, and this was the season in which he would break through to the first team after two very successful loan spells away from King Power.
The hope and expectation were high, but Kiernan’s chances in the first team weren’t consistently coming. This isn’t surprising given the talent of Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Boubakary Soumare. When he did get opportunities, he sometimes looked a little intimidated, especially in the Europa League.
Again, this is to be expected. The jump up from Championship football to Premier League, to European football is a sharp one. Naturally it would take time for the academy graduate. A busy December schedule, and increasing amounts of injuries, meant that Dewsbury-Hall got the chance that fans were crying out for, and my oh my has he performed.
The Luton player of the year had his breakout performance against Liverpool in December, with his utterly ridiculous work rate on full show in a big tie. Before, it was only a few in the media who were talking about the No.22, but after an assist and a MotM performance in the 1-0 win over the Reds, suddenly everyone was paying attention to the youngster.
An injury meant that he missed out on the Watford FA Cup win, but he was straight back into the first team last night and delivered yet another MotM performance for Leicester. He was everywhere last night, making impressive runs, having the most touches out of any Leicester player (85) and making 4 key passes, again the highest of any Foxes player. All this culminated in a 7.23 rating on WhoScored.com. Notably, he went off with cramp in the 88th minute and so was not involved in the capitulation at the very end.
When he was substituted off, the midfield looked significantly worse off, a huge sign as to how flipping good he is. This leads me on to the Youri Tielemans elephant in the room: he was diabolically bad. His passing was off, something which is defined by his truly terrible pass in the final seconds of the game which directly gave possession back to Spurs for them to counter and win.
Youri’s whole game was bad though, with terrible dribbles, bad tackles and no confidence on the ball. It wasn’t the case of his trying to do too much, it was him doing everything badly. Brendan Rodgers should have substituted Youri early in the second half, him not doing so has cost the game.
This is what Rodgers had to say on the Belgian:
"“To concede the equaliser was disappointing, so be it, but to concede the third was very very poor. It’s difficult to accept. It’s not rustiness, it’s managing the game. The third goal, Youri [Tielemans] knows you can never make that pass. If you can’t win it, then you shouldn’t lose it. It was very naive. We’ve got no excuses, that’s on us. We presented Tottenham with the three points.” Brendan Rodgers, The Telegraph"
Recently, there has been a fair amount of speculation about Youri’s future at the club. Rodgers has spoken since the beginning of the season about a contract extension, but so far there has been nothing. This means, as things stand, Tielemans’ contract runs out in 18 months-time, meaning the Foxes are very likely to lose him for a cut-price fee in the summer. A contract extension wouldn’t necessarily increase the amount of time Youri stays at the club, but it certainly would up the fee that would be needed to lure him away from King Power.
If Youri were to leave in the summer, then this is the perfect time for Dewsbury-Hall to be stepping up and contributing consistent MotM performances. It is clear that he is the future of that Leicester midfield, a perfectly balanced box-to-box threat. Dennis Praet’s expiring loan could see him fill the void that Tielemans leaves – if is probably down to Youri’s form in recent seasons that Praet hasn’t had more of a chance in the squad.
Ndidi will still be at the club next season and Soumare will be further into his development, with Rodgers previously stating that he sees Soumare as someone who can contribute to the attack rather than being a deep defensive midfielder. This means that if Leicester were to lose Tielemans in the summer, that they have a lot of quality players who are ready to step up and make an impact. One thing is for sure, as things currently stand, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is the future of Leicester City, and he is utterly undroppable.
Vestergaard is a scapegoat for a bigger issue
Okay, we’ve looked at the positives, now it is time to truly look at the major issue last night: the shambolic defending. And yes, Vestergaard is a scapegoat – of sorts. Last night, Tottenham had Leicester on the ropes throughout that first half. If they had lost the game, Spurs would have rued the missed chances they made.
Before Kane equalised for Spurs, they had two chances cleared off of the line, as well as Kane himself smashing the bar with a header from a corner. Davidson Sanchez also missed a guilt-edged chance after Leicester couldn’t clear from another corner, as he skewed a header into the side-netting. Leicester rode their luck and did just enough, until the very end.
With resources still stretched, Leicester played a 5 back last night, with a makeshift line of Hamza Choudhury, Jannik Vestergaard and Caglar Soyuncu as the centre backs, with Luke Thomas and Marc Albrighton playing as the wingbacks. In the second half, when they should have removed Vestergaard, Rodgers instead took off Luke Thomas for the returning James Justin who, rightfully, received a fantastic and heart-warming ovation from the crowd.
The defensive shape wasn’t the issue last night, it was the players who were in it. When your best centre back is Choudhury who is only playing his second game in that position, you must look at what an earth Soyuncu and Vestergaard were doing.
Ever since completing his £15m move from Southampton to Leicester in the summer, Jannik Vestergaard has struggled. To begin with, I was patient with the lad. Afterall, he’s a seasoned international with Denmark and has been impressive for Southampton. Last night however, I gave up on him.
His pace has always been an issue, but his physicality should make up for that, as should his height. But last night his pace was fully exposed, with even Harry Kane skinning him. Yes, Harry Kane. That would be okay though if Vestergaard out muscled the attacker; he did not. Slow, weak and a liability, Vestergaard was rubbish.
Perhaps the most damning stat of all was that Vestergaard, who stands at 6’6 tall (almost 2 meters high), failed to win a single aerial dual last night. Not even one. In the last goal, Vestergaard didn’t even jump for the ball when trying to win it in the air. He is a shambles.
All this being said, he was not the worst player on the pitch last night. Hence why I use the word scapegoat, because he is not the centre of Leicester’s defensive problems. He has only featured in a smattering of games. Caglar Soyuncu, however, has been a constant figure in the 16th worst defence in the Premier League (36 goals conceded), and was terrible last night.
Perhaps it was the last two seasons of Cags which has meant that he has evaded the criticism he deserves, or perhaps it’s the fact that, due to his huge size and the fact that he is a recent recruit, Vestergaard gets a considerable amount of the blame. Soyuncu has considerably more pace than his counterpart, and yet he too was left for dead by Harry Kane last night.
Soyuncu made direct errors in all three of Spurs’ goals yesterday. For the first goal he failed in his dual with Harry Kane and decided to instead go to ground in an attempt to tackle the ball. He didn’t, and instead he looked foolish laying on the floor as Kane hit a strike past Kasper Schmeichel.
For the Spurs equaliser, Soyuncu had the chance to either get in the way of the Doherty cross or produce a clearance. Instead, he stuck out a loose foot which teed up the shot for Bergwijn. For the third, Soyuncu went to ground again, trying to predict where Bergwijn would dribble the ball, rather than staying with the man. Cags decided to slide to the near post to block a shot that would come there, instead he simply let the far-post be exposed after Kasper – who is also to blame – failed in his attempt to claim the ball.
Bergwijn, already high on confidence, duly stuck it into that empty far post, leaving a prone Soyuncu to angrily smack the ball back against the post in frustration after letting the goal in. All this after mocking Bergwijn for diving just before the equalising goal. The Dutch international’s outburst and push resulted in a yellow card, but also a comical dive from Soyuncu who should have stood his ground.
Soyuncu has been poor all season. His confidence and chops have gone and have been replaced with foolish passing and an addiction to the floor, leading to predictable defending for opponents. In a time when Leicester have been missing both Evans and Fofana, Leicester needed Cags now more than ever, instead he has been a shambles.
After an awful start to the season – including his worst performance of all-time away to West Ham and a farcical showing for Turkey getting red carded in a 6-1 loss to the Netherlands – hopes were high for Cags when Evans returned. Surely, with Evans’ communication, Soyuncu’s game would get back to his best. Inevitably though, it didn’t. He has no excuses now; the Turk has just been plain bad.
My concern now is that too much pressure will be placed on the returning Fofana. After his horror-injury, surely it will take time for him to be back to his best. And we’ve already seen that Evans’ presence hasn’t helped either Soyuncu or Vestergaard. It is a true blessing that Daniel Amartey will be back for the Brighton game.
Last night should be Vestergaard’s last ever performance for Leicester. There is no confidence in the back line when he is around. Soyuncu is getting dangerously close to that point too (if he isn’t already there). If Leicester had a full squad, neither make the starting XI or the bench.
In the summer, Leicester must recruit a new centre back. James Tarkowski will be available on a free, or they could reignite their interest in Germany’s Jonathon Tar. Either way, Vestergaard must be sold in the summer, no matter how little it will cost teams. The financial loss they may make on him isn’t comparative to his detrimental influence on the pitch. Bring back Ryan Bennett I say, he can’t possibly be worse.
The game against Brighton is now huge. Leicester need to learn from the loss yesterday, or else face suffering similar results. There are positives from yesterday, but if Leicester keep conceding in the way that they are, it will doom them to the lower table or worse. Bring on Sunday.