With the apathetic malaise surrounding the King Power Stadium over the last few months, the simple pleasures of seeing Leicester City win has been a forgotten luxury. So drink it in because the next defeat never seems too far away. Here are the three things we learned from the victory over Leeds United.
Leicester City can defend!
These are unprecedented times. City have finally tightened up at the back. There seems to be a far more compact nature to the way the foxes restrict opponents’ space in the final third. The back 4, looks to have cohesion and balance when being pressed. James Justin & Timothy Castagne ensured they were firmly in full-back areas and covered their centre-backs by ensuring large gaps were not being created, restricting Leeds to long-range shots and half chances throughout. The defending has seen a continual improvement – mainly at home – with three clean sheets in a row. However, Leicester did have to ride their luck with a first-half shot that hit the crossbar and a deflected shot hitting the side netting late on. But on the whole, Leeds struggled to get beyond this tight Leicester City backline. To continue reading the article, please now select the ‘page 2’ option directly below.
Whisper it quietly as well, but the set piece defending has massively improved and there seems far less anxiety in the team and the crowd when the opposition lines up a corner kick. Clearances are made with aggression and Danny Ward is consistently available to claim. Speaking of the Welsh keeper, he’s starting to show confidence and dare I say a bit of swagger. He made a very decent save that although given as offside was still a strong indicator of his improved reactions. His long kicks although seem erratic might be worth keeping an eye on. Twice he tried to go the opposite side to the way the teams traditionally shifted to one side of the pitch. Considering many wrote Danny Ward off as the worst Premier League keeper ever – unfair hyperbole in my opinion – he’s starting to show his worth.
All the above does come with a large caveat. All of these enhanced defensive displays have come at home. Away from the KP, we know the story is very different and the recent Bournemouth collapse highlighted this. Leicester has not conceded any less than 2 on the road so far this season and let in at least 4 on three occasions. Another clean sheet and victory would be just the tonic at a struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. But don’t hold your breath, Leicester has managed only 3 clean sheets on the road since the start of last season at Burnley, Millwall & Stockport.
The corner hasn’t quite been turned yet
Yes, we’re now happy with the recent results but Leicester City are still 19th in the Premier League heading into the end of October. The result against Leeds United was more important than the performance with a gap starting to form away from safety. That is just as well as the first-half display was ropey at best. The Yorkshire club’s aggressive press was causing short pass dispossession and positional mistakes in the Leicester ranks with Daniel Amartey making his trademark giveaways early on with Dennis Praet and Boubakary Soumare struggling to find midfield space.
It’s at times like those when you do need some luck and Robin Koch provided it with his strange attempted clearance sliced into his own net. It was against the run of play and felt even more so when Luis Sinisterra crashed a shot against the crossbar. Not long after, Leicester City produced the best moment of quality in the game with a well-worked passing move calmly finished off by Leeds United nemesis Harvey Barnes – who has now scored in 6 consecutive games against them. That second goal deflated Leeds and gave Leicester City more belief. They came out for the second half with more purpose and energy to hold onto what they’ve got. It is still an issue that Leicester City need to start winning games before they believe in what they are doing. The real test will be when the luck is against them and they go behind in a game. That is still a nut that is proving difficult to crack for Brendan Rodgers and will be one of the many routes for him to navigate if he is to ever win back the supporters.
Empty seats are a bad sign for the stadium extension
Although the attendance was a respectable 30,814 it does seem there were more empty seats than usual – perhaps attendance is based on seats sold and not seats occupied. It’s possible that season ticket holders are taking advantage of the buyback scheme to get back some much-needed money in hard times as well as casual supporters unwilling to cough up £40 for the unoccupied seats. The club’s price rise was long overdue but unfortunately ill-timed and it’s becoming a frustrating experience attaining tickets. I myself wanted to bring my son to the game but as I sit with my friend I would have to jump through hoops to get us to move our two seats to an available three as the club needs signed letters for me to do that. All a bit unnecessary.
There were roughly 1500 tickets available to buy online and despite not being sold out, the club refused to put the tickets on general sale. Instead, you have to have a booking history, is this not a chicken-and-egg situation from the club? If you rely on your friends and family getting you tickets will you ever be able to build a booking history? It’s all very complicated and tiresome. This is just people buying tickets and watching football, not everything needs to be an extension in creating marketing strategies. The club would do well to remember that with an extra 8,000 seats they will fill in the not-too-distant future
Add this to the digital season ticket fiasco and the club runs the risk of alienating and missing out on a wave of supporters that are still desperate to go to games. This is an issue the club needs to sort out urgently.