Ipswich 1-1 Leicester: Three Foxes Talking Points

Even though we are only a third of the way through the season, this was, despite what Steve Cooper said in his pre-match press conference, a proverbial six-pointer, against a team struggling towards the bottom of the league who had so-far failed to win a single game after their return to the top-flight. 

Team selection

Cooper selected the team that most Leicester fans have been calling for with Ricardo Pereira and Jannik Vestergaard in defence. Abdul Fatawu who, as FoL reported, was an injury doubt also started. James Justin, Caleb Okoli and Jordan Ayew missed out. Boubakary Soumare was rewarded for a promising performance in midweek with a place on the bench. 

The game

The Foxes are making a habit of turning games around at the death. In revenge for two late Ipswich equalisers last season, substitute Jordan Ayew, put in by Jamie Vardy in a clever one-two, rescued a point for Leicester with a close range shot in the 94th minute. Ayew should probably have scored a few minutes earlier when he was put through on goal only for an Ipswich defender to clear his shot off the line.

The turning point, though, was the second yellow card issued to Town midfielder Kalvin Phillips in the 77th minute. From then on it was one way traffic, and had the game lasted five or ten minutes longer, City may well have won it. In the first half, the Foxes started brightly and had two chances to open the scoring before Ipswich came back into the game forcing a succession of corners towards the end of the half. Town continued in the same vein in the second half and it was no surprise when they opened the scoring. Pereira failed to cut out a cross field ball and the full back Leif Davis took full advantage sneaking in behind to volley smartly past Mads Hermansen. 

A lack of identity

Back at the club coach after the game, a fellow Foxes’ fan said: ‘I’ll take the point but it can’t paper over the cracks’. I agree to some extent. For much of the game, Leicester looked disjointed. There is a distinct lack of identity with Cooper’s team. At the start, there was a reprise of the Maresca style with an attempt to pass out from the back and beat the press. Midway through the first half for no apparent reason, though, this was abandoned with Hermansen kicking long. Even some of the City players looked confused. In addition, some players – Wilfred Ndidi and Stephy Mavididi in particular - were well below their best. Soumare, on the other hand, looked promising again when he came on for Ndidi and may be worth a league start. What a shrewd buy Ayew, rapidly becoming a fan favourite, is looking. A share of the spoils gives Cooper some breathing space, but he really does need to work on his team’s raison d’etre.