I usually get these match reports done within an hour of the match ending. But this weekend I’ve been deathly ill and it feels appropriate given what’s happened to Leicester’s men’s and women’s teams this week. Nails have been hammered into coffins for both sides (and hopefully not for myself).
An away game against Liverpool was our best chance of a win for the rest of the season. Three points here would have eased a lot of pressure on Leicester. But after losing 2-0, we’re now bottom by 2 points. 2 wins, 3 draws and a whole load of losses. There hasn’t been a lot to be happy about.
We’ve scored 8 goals in 16 games in the WSL this season. Seeing us score one goal in a game feels very rare and scoring more than one in a game has not happened this season. It felt like Passmoor was looking to play a little more expansively in an effort to score some goals, but now we still don’t score but we concede more. Our 2 wins were both 1-0 wins that involved sitting back and hitting the other team on the break and then clinging on. Based on that, the only option from here until the end of the season has to be the return of the Passmoor Catenaccio.
Liverpool have been on the up recently. They came into this game with 3 wins from the last 5, including a Merseyside derby win in the FA Cup. They looked ready to win from the off with Ceri Holland cutting in from the right to draw just about all of Leicester’s back four towards her and she got a decent shot away to the bottom corner of the returning Leitzig’s goal. This was very much a sign of what was to come.
After just 10 minutes, Mia Enderby sent a low cross fizzing into the box and Beata Olsson was able to find the space between Ale and Thibaud to tap it in. This chance came on the counter for Liverpool and Leicester looked really disorganised at the back. I’m not sure if they were trying to catch Olsson offside or if they were just caught on the jump.
I’ve given Asmita Ale a lot of praise all season when playing in the full back positions, but at centre back, she doesn’t seem to quite have the defensive awareness needed. I get she was moved inside from left back to make room for Ashleigh Neville, but I don’t see why Ale couldn’t go in at right back instead. With 80 minutes remaining of the game, it was hard not to feel that the jig was up already, but if there’s one quality this Leicester team show, they are trying really hard. Effort doesn’t get you points, but it certainly makes it easier to watch lots of bad, losing football.
Photo: Harry Gregory
For most of the game, Ceri Holland was playing great crosses into the box for Olsson. She was able to find space on the left again and again as it looked like Sarah Mayling never really got a grasp on the game, or her opponent. I am once again insisting that Asmita Ale play at right back please.
Leitzig made a fantastic save from a Mia Enderby shot around the 60th minute. There was some confusion in the box and she even had a few players in front of her, but she read the situation well enough to dive down and keep the shot out. It was her first game back from injury since January and she looked back to her best already. Again, Leitzig is keeping us in games for longer than the rest of our play rightfully deserves.
In a startling show of pathetic fallacy, the heavens opened and it started raining so hard that you could hear every drop through the on pitch microphones. While I felt it was over already, Leicester were 1-0 down and they played like they had a hope of scoring a goal. Missy Goodwin got forward down the left relatively often after coming on for Alisha Lehmann. She was usually crossing to no one and at one point even had to dither on the ball and wait for runners to arrive, while Passmoor screamed for someone to get in there. Goodwin later also had Leicester’s best and possibly only chance of the game when the ball was recycled from a corner by Noemie Mouchon. The ball went back out of the box, almost to the halfway line and then found its way back to Goodwin, who took a little too long to get a shot away and had the ball snatched off her toes.
Goodwin got forward well down the left and had no one to cross to a few times.
Goodwin later had a great chance when the ball was recycled after a Leicester corner by Mouchon. Goodwin couldn’t quite make the decision on when to shoot and had the ball taken away from her.
In the last few minutes of the game, Aurelie Csillag got into the box with plenty of space and Ale came in with a late tackle that gave away a penalty. It wasn’t rash or silly, it wasn’t horribly mistimed, it was just not right and you do wonder if someone with more experience at centre half would have dealt with it better. It wasn’t easy by any means, but someone like Chantelle Swaby would stand a better chance of making that tackle.
Ultimately, the only plus to take from this game is that the coffin that we’re being nailed into has a special, one-season-only escape hatch. Based on results between WSL and WSL 2 sides in cup competition, Leicester should stand a decent chance of surviving, on paper. But the reality of going a whole season barely scoring and then playing an ascendant WSL 2 side is the perfect recipe for an upset. We lost 3-0 to Crystal Palace in the League Cup in November and it’s very possible we’ll face them again. And I wouldn’t bet a lot on Leicester surviving.
The Fosse Way 