3 Players who let the side down in Bournemouth 2-1 Leicester
By Will Kennedy
Danny Ward of Leicester City
There are five commonly recognised stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. When it comes to my feelings on Danny Ward, I’d say I’m firmly squeezed between depression and acceptance.
When he made his Premier League debut against Watford last season, there was a lot of hope surrounding the Welsh international. Sure, he couldn’t keep a clean sheet – though this was a set-piece error rather than Ward’s fault per se – but he looked like the obvious successor to Schmeichel. This season, he has proved he is anything but.
There was a lot of denial on my part to begin with. ‘Give him more time’ I thought, ‘just wait until we get our Fofana replacement in’; anger and bargaining swiftly followed. Now most fans are at the stage of accepting he isn’t good enough and are growing impatient at the lack of Iverson’s involvement.
Saturday was yet another example of why the Dane deserves his shot between the sticks. Against Bournemouth, Ward faced four shots on target but could only save two of them. For Billing’s volley, you can excuse the Welshman as the shot was cannoned into the net. For Christie’s winner though, he tried coming out of his area to block the high ball, only to flap at the prospect of making a save.
He didn’t come out with confidence, instead looked lost and desperate. If you’re an attacker facing up against Ward, you’d back yourself right now. So far, he has conceded 24 goals and has only made 26 saves. Worse though, as per FotMob, his xG for conceding goals is only a 15.19. He’s conceded almost 10 more goals than he’s expected to.
His overall FotMob score this season is a 5.77/10 – his 7.4/10 against Forest propping up his overall score considerably. It’s clear Leicester need anyone else between the sticks against Crystal Palace.