As the full time whistle blew when Leicester City fell to Hull a fortnight ago, many Foxes fans knew it would be a long two weeks ahead of a tough run of fixtures. That run started last night on the south coast, where the dismantling of Southampton had a real feeling of step change in Leicester City’s season.
Before this weekend, there was cautious optimism that City could be onto something special with four wins out of five, but with every fixture being tight, there was yet to be a statement performance to confirm many of the pre-season musings. 90 minutes and four goals later, the mood has dramatically shifted to one of hope and confidence in Enzo Maresca’s men. Here at Foxes of Leicester, we’re looking at three positives and negatives from Southampton 1-4 City.
Negative: First half Leicester City leakiness
Despite scoring three goals before the break, City still appeared to be porous in defence with Southampton being afforded opportunities that a side pushing for promotion should not allow. The Foxes took the lead after 22 seconds, but before the five-minute mark Southampton had an opportunity to equalise and Ricardo Pereira was lucky to escape a booking for stopping a counter-attack.
Positive: Second half control
The first 15 minutes of the second half were played almost exactly how Enzo Maresca would have hoped, with composure in possession and excellent ball retention frustrating Southampton into a lack of belief following Ndidi’s goal on half time. Once afforded gaps in midfield due to Saints pushing for a goal, Maresca’s philosophy comes into its own.
Negative: Silly yellow cards
This was another fixture in which both Harry Winks and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall picked up a caution, with both midfield men sitting on three yellow cards already. The latter was carded for a foul in an area where it wasn’t necessary to bring down his opponent, and with those two players so crucial to the system and already on three yellows for the campaign, a ban at some point throughout the season appears to be as likely as potentially harmful.
Positive: Excellent squad depth
Understandably, when a side takes the lead so early on, the game state is different to the vast majority of predicted scenarios, with Vardy’s opener leading to Southampton changing tack and leaving more space in midfield. This highlighted the strength in quality across the City match day squad, allowing Maresca to deal with anything thrown at his side as the match set-up evolved.
Abdul Fatawu and Kelechi Iheanacho helped to stretch and already extended home side, while Hamza Choudhury was brought on to help stifle any momentum they may have garnered. Patson Daka, who Maresca says is now in his plans, didn’t even make it off the bench, speaking volumes about the numbers at the manager’s disposal.
Negative: Communication errors still happening
On paper, a 4-1 win against a promotion rival would seem comfortable, and Friday night’s triumph really was, but it was clear to see that the ‘Enzo Way’ as affectionately described by the Foxes faithful is still very much a work in progress. It wasn’t just Callum Doyle’s inexplicable leave of the ball that highlighted that there’s more work to be done; there were examples of City players not being on the same wavelength when playing out from the back in both halves.
Positive: Ability to pick teams apart
Deep into stoppage time, Wilfred Ndidi polished off an incredible 33-pass move to put the Foxes 3-1 ahead and crush any designs Saints had on getting an equaliser before the break. Throughout this sequence, nearly all of the City players were involved, and Southampton were exposed by the crisp, yet patient movement of the ball across the field. Friday was the first enormous test against a promotion rival, and to see the Foxes go toe-to-toe with Southampton on their own patch and brush them aside so comfortably at their own game will be incredibly satisfying.