Leicester City scraped past a determined Walsall by just a single goal to march into the FA Cup fifth round. Going into the game, Walsall had form and home advantage on their side, having lost just once in their last 13 games.
Whilst the Saddlers gave Leicester a tough outing, a heavily deflected Kelechi Iheanacho strike gave LCFC fans a much-needed goal to save themselves from any embarrassment. In reality, it was the least the Foxes deserved, having spurned a plethora of chances throughout the game. Despite intermittent pressure from the home side, Leicester City saw the game out to move into the fifth round. Is another cup run possible?
Kelechi Iheanacho is Leicester City’s saviour, again
Starting with the elephant in the room, Kelechi Iheanacho once again demonstrated his magic touch in the FA Cup. Despite being deprived of minutes and starts, the Nigerian often comes up with the goods and today was no different. Whilst there was a touch of fortune in his goal, his all-round play was pretty good, holding it up and looking like Leicester’s biggest goal threat.
It is worth saying that Patson Daka was by no means bad today. The Zambian was also dangerous and his movement granted him several chances, none of which were particularly easy. Nevertheless, he lacks the all-important clinical edge at the moment.
This begs the question, why is Iheanacho not getting more minutes? One would hypothesise that with the introduction of Tete, Iheanacho should be given a chance with Harvey Barnes and Tete as runners in behind. As we have seen in the past, Iheanacho’s link-up with direct wingers like Barnes can work a treat, such as Barnes’ goal against Leeds last season. Otherwise, it seems such a waste for a player of Kelechi’s talents to sit on the bench each week.
Victor Kristiansen’s promising debut
Another positive from a tough outing was the debut of Danish full-back Victor Kristiansen. Despite having not played since November, the new signing was put straight into the squad and came on for the last half an hour, replacing Luke Thomas. In his short cameo, we saw exactly what he brings to the squad, and how he provides attacking balance, something sorely lacking in the left-back position currently.
His aggression and physicality stood out despite some rustiness, whilst he showed great attacking intent to bomb up the field in support of LCFC attacks. To top it all off, the Danish under-21 should also have had an assist with a well-executed pull-back wasted by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
The ability to hold width also had a positive effect on players such as Barnes who were able to benefit from having more support going forward. All in all, this was a successful outing and Foxes fans will be excited to see more of the new signing, as well as the incoming Tete.
A lack of cutting-edge
Although Leicester City managed to ultimately triumph over their lower-league opponents, they certainly had to do it the hard way. This was largely due to a well-organised display from the home side but also because of Leicester City’s wastefulness in front of goal.
In total, Leicester City had 28 shots on the Walsall goal but of those 28, only seven were on target. When looking at the shot map more closely, 18 of these shots were inside the box indicating that LCFC players were getting into the right areas. Further still, Leicester created four big chances and missed them all, one of these being the penalty. Such profligacy doesn’t reflect well on the attacking players, of which Daka was the main culprit.
In Daka’s defence, out of his seven shots, none of them were easy opportunities. Nevertheless, you have to make the most of your chances, especially when you create so many. Against better opponents, such erratic shooting is likely to cost LCFC much more.