Leicester City travel to face Crystal Palace as the Foxes desperately scramble to reach towards Premier League safety. Here are the ratings after the match.
The King Power side’s head coach put out a fairly strong team to face Palace. Daniel Iversen started in goal, with a back line of Victor Kristiansen, Wout Faes, Harry Souttar, and Timothy Castagne. In midfield, Wilfred Ndidi, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and James Maddison. Upfront, Harvey Barnes, Patson Daka, and Tete. Personally, I would have preferred Ricardo Pereira, Papy Mendy, and Kelechi Iheanacho starting.
Leicester City player ratings
Iversen – 8
Iversen was tested quite a bit in the first half, he made the saves you could expect him to to help Leicester ride the initial surge. Palace were aggressive and easily getting through the Foxes’ midfield. He was tested far too much early on. At least the Dane did his work well.
The Danish goalkeeper was unlucky with Eberechi Eze’s free kick goal. Great shot, great goal to equalise and peg what was a more confident Leicester City. The goal was given as an own goal. Man of the match for me, absolutely stalwart goalkeeping for the Foxes.
Kristiansen – 5
Player was carded at the 30th minute for a raised elbow. An unfortunate one considering the Foxes were under huge pressure at the time. The player became less involved further and further into the game and was subbed off for Luke Thomas at the 60th minute.
Faes – 7
The Belgian defender was critical to the King Power club early on. The Foxes were getting stretched by an adventurous Crystal Palace and Faes made multiple blocks and critical tackles. Without the player many goals could have been scored. The player was critical throughout both halves.
Souttar – 6
Leicester were tested defensively early on, and the Australian was critical during the multiple corners the Eagles had in the first half. A very important performance to prevent the Foxes going too far behind.
Castagne – 5
To be honest, the player did what was needed: get back and block the route for Wilfred Zaha. As can be seen from Castagne’s average position, the Belgian right-back was constantly under pressure from Zaha and stayed in the penalty area to block easy passes into strikers.
Ndidi – 6
Despite a number of crucial defensive actions, our midfield was absolutely skinned. Runners were left unmarked and space was left exploitable for Zaha and Eberechi Eze. Ndidi was one of our midfielders so should have been expected to do more.
Our Nigerian defensive midfielder massively improved for the second half. Better tackling, better ball retention, more clinical passing. Winning the ball and disrupting play as the player would be expected to.
KDH – 7
Within the first 30 seconds, the English midfielder was expected to undertake defensive actions as Crystal Palace immediately rushed through midfield and into attacking positions. KDH did what was needed to not concede so early on. This being said, we should not have been relying on lucky last ditch defending.
The English box-to-box player earned Leicester their first corner of the game in the second half. Maddison of course took it. A poor corner overall, but at least the King Power club got something. KDH also linked up well with Madders in the opening stages of the second half, showing real passion to help the Foxes start creating chances.
Madders – 6
The English midfielder was barely involved early in the match. The initial performance was unimpressive from the usual attacking, defending, and creating personality we are used to. He gave the ball away a few too many times as well.
The second half saw the player improve massively. He worked well with his fellow English midfielder to start creating chances and got onto the end of our first real attempt.
Barnes – 6
The English left-winger and Danish left-back worked well together on the counter attack. When they had their first proper time on the ball to create an opportunity, the Foxes were unlucky not to have scored the first goal at the 12th minute. As is the usual, this left side was Leicester City’s main creative outlet alongside Maddison. The left-winger did however become less involved as Kristiansen became less influential.
Daka – 5
The striker was hardly involved in the first half. I cannot blame him, but when the Zambian player was involved the player did very little with that possession. It was also concerning how Leicester were unable to get the striker into dangerous areas. He was brought off at the 72nd minute for Kelechi Iheanacho.
Tete – 4
Tete is not defenisvely astute. It is simply not the role he takes on, but his lack of tracking back left the Foxes constantly exposed at the back. He did not assist during the first 10 minutes with Crystal Palace being creative and aggressive.
When the Brazilian got involved defensively, the player caused too many fouls. On top of this, the player have the ball away with cheap passing. The player was taken off at half time.
Substitutes
Pereira – 8
Brought on at half time, the player was the right decision to support Castagne on the right and offer attacking threat and reliability as Tete offered little to keep him on the pitch. The Portuguese international made a clear difference to the team, bringing more intensity.
What a finish! The Portuguese beast is back and on the scoreline in an absolutely critical goal to remove the pressure and provide much more positivity for the Foxes. Maddison, KDH, and Pereira played very well together.
Luke Thomas – 6 n/a
Kelechi Iheanacho – 5 n/a
Brendan Rodgers’ men have failed again to retain points. Terrible result for the King Power club. With what was a good performance in the second half, a terrible in the first, a great goalkeeping performance as well.