What Leicester boss Dean Smith got right and wrong at Man City

Leicester City lost 3-1 to title contenders Manchester City. Here are the three things Dean Smith did right and wrong, illustrated with the stats.

The Foxes were defensively inept in the initial stages of the match, unlucky with a penalty, and unfortunate with a typical Erling Haaland moment. The second half saw Leicester improve immensely thanks to a couple of substitutions made by the gaffer.

The 3-1 scoreline does not show the full picture. Now then, a bit of expected goals (xG) stats might be useful to illustrate just how unlucky the English head coach was with those first 30 minutes. A penalty is usually worth around 0.7 xG: meaning you expect the team to score more often than not. The xG scoreline was 1.6 v 2.2 in the King Power’s favour.

So, what went wrong which meant this expected win ended up a humiliating defeat?

What Leicester City boss Dean Smith did wrong

Typical ol’ Leicester City. In the first half, Manchester City were utterly dominant in progression and retained possession very well; helped in part due to a lack of forward movement and retention by the Foxes. In the second half, Leicester began to use their possession better, being neater and less incompetent.