Not good enough
Superficially, the match against Pompey looked like one that the Foxes should win at a canter. Moderately placed in 14th with three wins, three draws and three defeats the South Coast club were facing a Leicester team unbeaten in five matches and sitting in third place. As the last home game against Wrexham proved, however, there are no easy matches at this level. Portsmouth’s last outing, a 1-0 victory over high-flying Middlesborough, showed how the form book can be overcome.
And so it proved. This was truly a game of two halves. In the first, the Foxes were well on top and after 25 minutes scored through Aaron Ramsey, his first for the club, after an Abdul Fatawu cross. There could have been more, shots from Harry Winks and Jordan James going close. Pompey hit the bar but offered little else going forward.
In the second half, the game was transformed. Portsmouth were the better side, quicker to the second ball and a threat on the Leicester goal. It was no surprise when they equalised through a close range strike from John Swift on the hour mark, and they could have won it before the end when Jakub Stolarczyk pushed a shot round the post. The Foxes rallied towards the end but the end product was missing.
That’s six games unbeaten for the Foxes, but only one win during this run. It is not good enough if Leicester are to mount a convincing promotion bid.
The downside of success
Explaining the discrepancy between Leicester’s performance in the first and second half is necessary. One possible explanation is the demands of the international football calendar. For soccer fans, the international break is a time for an interruption in following their clubs and - at least for those, like me, who aren’t that interested in England matches – watching football. For the majority of Leicester city’s squad, however, there was no respite as they were called into action by their national associations which involved not just playing but also travelling in some cases huge distances.
This is a reminder that Leicester City are still a relatively big club. By contrast, most, if not all, Portsmouth players have had a two week break from action. The status of the Foxes was further reinforced this week by the Transfermarkt site which reported that six Foxes players – Jannik Vestergaard, Ricardo Pereira, Harry Winks, Boubakary Soumare, Patson Daka and Bobby De Cordova-Reid – feature in a highest-paid Championship XI, and that, with a market value of around £142m, the City first-team squad is the third most valuable – after Ipswich and Southampton - in the second tier.
The Leicester boss had to take the international call-ups into account before choosing his starting XI against Portsmouth. One decision was taken out of his hands. With Stephy Mavididi still out with a hamstring injury, Jeremy Monga started again on the left wing. Two changes were made which were largely a product of the international scene with Aaron Ramsey, back from suspension – slotting into the midfield in place of De Cordova-Reid who was late back from Jamaican World-Cup duty - and Julian Carranza made his first start in preference to Daka and Jordan Ayew, both of whom had played for their countries in midweek.
The fact remains that the second half performance was leggy. Pompey were quicker to the ball and generally worked harder. It should be said, though, that this isn't the first time this season Leicester have lost control of a game in the second half, and so to put it down to international call-ups might be stretching things too far. What is for sure, with another game in three days time, the Foxes' resilience will be tested.
Worth saying again
As I, and many others, have previously written, Leicester’s lack of a goal-scoring central striker is a real problem this season. It was evident again in the Portsmouth match. Carranza had the chance to stake his claim for a place in the team. He didn’t take it. The Argentine player made a couple of promising runs early on but largely disappeared from the match before being substituted on the hour mark. He is struggling to come to terms with the physicality of the English game. Patson Daka, his replacement, put in another ineffective performance. The January transfer window can’t come soon enough.