Leicester City fell to defeat to Manchester United at the King Power Stadium. The only goal of the game came in the first half from Jadon Sancho.
Leicester City have no right winger and a lack of structure in midfield
I feel like these two topics come hand in hand, hence I’ve included them both here. I think it’s absolutely criminal that we didn’t sign a right winger in the transfer window. We don’t have a natural wideman for that flank in the squad. I get that we could play Perez or Praet, but it’s beside the point; they aren’t natural right wingers and therefore tend to drift inside.
Which leads onto my next point. I felt that during Thursday night’s game, the midfield seemed to lack any form of structure, playing Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who are all like-minded players and essentially play the same position. And, as I previously stated, it just felt like there was no real linchpin or literal formation in the middle. I’ll be honest, at times I believe the team actually looked lost in themselves, and sort of seemed to be running around like headless chickens.
Should Vardy be dropped?
Now this could create some controversy, and I hate to even have to be writing this as he’s a personal favourite of mine, but should we start thinking about whether Vardy should be dropped from the team? Last night he didn’t do a lot, which I’m not entirely pinning the blame on him for. that is because you can only do so much if you’re not being supplied. However, in previous games, like at Chelsea, he’s had clear cut chances and not put them away, which makes you start to question should Kelechi Iheanacho be awarded a start on his own or alongside Vardy.
Although, the way Iheanacho plays, tending to drop deeper into Maddison’s position, could affect the midfield. Yet Iheanacho and Vardy have played quite well together at times. I know last season Rodgers played them as a pairing a few times and they worked well. Then that was it, and it never happened again. Do we look to Patson Daka? He hasn’t been given a proper chance and it could be just the confidence he needs. Daka could end up as the next best thing since sliced bread – but who knows?!
Positives
Now, after getting all of the negatives out the way from the Man Utd loss, I thought I’d finish on a more positive note. I know it’s hard to find many positives in the position we’re in at the moment. Though, by discussing how well Boubakary Soumare and Jonny Evans played last night, I felt Leicester City had slightly improved overall. At times the Foxes have actually been playing really well with some nice one-touch football. Nonetheless giving up after 60 minutes and throwing away a lead. But last night it was consistent throughout the entire game (it really is the little things you have to pick up on to bring you joy at the minute).
Back onto Soumare and Evans, I thought the former in particular had a brilliant game. He looked really confident on the ball; I’ll be frank, the Frenchman actually looked like he cared. While the Northern Irishman was strong at the back: putting in some powerful and important tackles to stop one goal turning into more.
I also thought I’d touch slightly on our new signing Wout Faes. I’ll be honest, I had never heard of him before, but I think he’s going to be a really good signing for us. He’s already described himself as a leader which I think is good, as well as being what Leicester City need at the minute.
Faes also won Reims Player of the Season last year. The defender has also been described as someone who likes to get stuck in and will step out of defence to stop opposition moves. I think he will work well alongside Evans.
I’d just like to end this by saying it’s been tough so far to sit and watch Leicester lose week after week at King Power Stadium and elsewhere. We have no idea what is happening behind the scenes specifically, but for now, all we can do is carry on supporting our team, as heart-breaking as it is to see, Foxes never quit.