Hull City 2-2 Leicester City: Three Foxes who let the Side Down in Sorry Display

Leicester only scored one goal from open play, relying on a penalty to equalise the first Hull City goal. The Tigers were certainly up for the game, once again with ‘MarescaBall’ found out, they closed the Foxes down, starved them of meaningful possession, and created their own chances. Enzo Maresca’s team only had 49% possession, when they have historically held onto more than 60%.

So, a weak performance from a side trying to maintain their lead at the top of the EFL Championship table, and they also had the opportunity to go five points clear at the top of the table had they won the tie. Nevertheless, despite poor team selection, there are some players who really need a rest or some competition for spots.

Leicester City’s Stephy Mavididi

This was perhaps his worst performance in blue and white. I suppose I should recount the performance: a penalty committed, only one blocked shot taken, only two out of 11 ground duels won, no successful dribbles and only 72% passing accuracy. Not to mention he gave the ball away 20 whole times. What a mare of a day for the winger.

He just kept giving the ball away and was generally ineffective and poor throughout the fixture. I was honestly confused Maresca chose not to sub him off for Marc Albrighton when Leicester needed calm, composure, and consistency to obtain control over a back and forth kind of game. Albrighton is an experienced, leading voice, that links up well with many of the players on that pitch.

The Belgian centre-back

His mistake led to the first goal, his defensive contributions were negligible at best, and the defender failed to actually disrupt opposition attacks on goal in what was probably also Wout Faes’ worst performance in a blue and white shirt. Simply poor. Especially when in the background was Conor Coady and Harry Souttar: both better defenders.

Not really a player…

Enzo Maresca has got to take some of the blame for the result. The Italian head coach deployed a team which was fatigued, full of underperforming favourites, and offered little to inspire the supporters in lieu of deciding to drop Conor Coady after being involved in our first EFL win in five attempts.

It is also self-evident that ‘MarescaBall’ has been found out by the weaker sides, who employ an extremely simply counter measure as they already know exactly how the Foxes are going to set up. After all, Maresca does not rotate or remove players from his starting XI, except those most of us agree should be in the side.

What Hull did was exactly what every single side - bar Leeds United - have done to best Leicester City: starve the King Power team of possession, control the flow of the ball out to the wings, and then just apply a bunch of pressure so they mistakenly pass or take it all the way back where you can pounce on slower defenders. The situation is so obvious I am blind to why the Foxes showed no desire to alter their play based on what they were faced with.

Against such compact and controlled teams, getting crosses into the danger area is usually the best option. It allows you to create a chance with your better players, create confusion and mistakes in an organised backline, and provides a moment where a rushing midfielder could become a hero goal scorer. Yet instead, Maresca has us try what we have used all season: get it to Abdul Fatawu or Mavididi and hope they can work some magic. That failed, and will continue to fail.