As Leicester City’s defeated opponents trudge off the pitch at the King Power Stadium, the loudspeakers strike up the distinctive opening notes of This Girl by Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners.
Ten years ago next month, that soundtrack was first used to greet a victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Premier League in front of 30,000 people.
Last night, it was used to celebrate beating Lee Grant’s Walsall in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy in front of 3,000 people.
Leicester’s 4-2 victory in December 2016, achieved with just 22% possession, came against a club we now know had artificially inflated their standing in the game. In his post-match interview, Claudio Ranieri said: “It was the true Leicester”. We were the underdogs, the team that didn’t need the ball to win.
The club’s first use of This Girl was a knowing nod for those of us who had travelled to Porto a few days earlier and heard it over and over again – the goal music used by the hosts as they rattled in five goals without reply. Many of us laughed out loud at hearing it again.
Who’s laughing now, a decade on? To say Leicester City have grown stale would be kind. The opponents have changed. The competition has changed. But it’s the same pre-match montage we’ve seen for years. The same post-match goal music. The same tired-looking venue for it all.
The interesting question here is whether Ranieri’s definition of “the true Leicester” has changed. The club would say it has, having moved from a counter-attacking style to a firmly possession-based style since the Ranieri days.
And Russell Martin would have watched his players pinging the ball about during a dominant first half last night and seen a team as close to his image as he’s mustered since his arrival in the summer. It was, relative to the League Two opposition, impressive to watch. Total domination, making the opposition look like training cones.
The cones took the lead after 10 minutes.
It was set up beautifully by some creative passing on the halfway line by our back three of Bade Aluko, Luke Thomas and Warren O’Hora, who all managed to play terrible passes to each other in the space of two seconds. They were soon all haring off towards their own goal in pursuit of Walsall striker Andrew Dallas, who scored at the second attempt.
Dallas celebrated in front of an entirely empty stand. The attendance was listed as 3,083, the ground less than 10% full for a competitive first team game. Going 1-0 down in such circumstances was merely the latest candidate for the lowest point in the club’s history.
The good news is that from then on, Leicester recovered to complete a deserved victory. Admir Bristric, in for Emil Riis up front, had already been caught offside twice in the first five minutes and he rounded off the opening quarter of an hour by shooting over the bar twice when well placed.
Leicester were soon level, after Luke Thomas and the returning Tommy Watson combined well down the left to win a corner. Will Smallbone’ delivery eventually fell to John Lundstram, who dispatched the ball into the net with a decisive overhead kick.
The chances kept coming, largely thanks to a noticeably high tempo. Leicester zipped the ball around in midfield with one-touch passing and were unlucky not to take the lead when Aluko’s excellent line-splitting pass to Conor Chaplin resulted in Smallbone touching the ball wide at the near post.
When the second goal eventually arrived, it was reminiscent of Enzoball. Perhaps that’s unfair to Martin, who shares so many of Maresca’s principles yet obviously deserves credit when his approach works out.
The comparison is unavoidable though. O’Hora, Chaplin and Lundstram played quick passes through a congested central area, the ball was worked wide to Watson and his centre was placed into the net by Smallbone.
There were more excellent moves before half time involving a variety of Smallbone, Lundstram, Watson and Kamari Doyle, while Will Alves was a constant threat down the right.
The quality and experience available to Martin, especially in central midfield, means a 2-1 half time lead at home to Walsall isn’t anything to get wildly excited about. Yet it was reassuring to see a quicker Leicester City side, thanks to the speed of passing through the middle and pace out wide with Watson and Alves.
The start of the second half gave a reminder of the flaws in this side. First, debutant Dai Cornell played a poor pass to O’Hora and Walsall nearly profited. Then Bristric wasted two good positions, first by not holding the ball up and then with a remarkably sloppy pass on the counter attack. It’s still early days for him in English football but we’re going to need to see evidence of more all-round ability than we’ve been served so far.
With nearly an hour on the clock, Bristric had a great chance to prove himself. Sent clear by O’Hora’s long ball, he should have gone through and scored. Instead, he clearly anticipated contact from his marker and went down easily, appealing for a foul and a red card. Nothing was given.
That was the first of two excellent balls over the top by O’Hora which should have resulted in goals. The second was taken down expertly by Doyle but his shot was disappointing. Finishing is clearly an issue for this set of players.
Leicester then made their first set of substitutions with Bobby Decordova-Reid and Sammy Braybrooke coming on for Chaplin and Smallbone. The largely anonymous Chaplin handed the captain’s armband to De Cordova-Reid.
The introduction of De Cordova-Reid is always met with a slump of the shoulders. It’s a sign that Leicester are about to get a lot slower and less direct.
That they had actually played with tempo up to that point was largely down to the wide threat posed by Alves and Watson.
Alves has quickly established himself as one of the first names on the teamsheet and he was excellent here, particularly at winning corners from deflected crosses after beating his man round the outside.
It’s a different story for Watson. Just a couple of months into his loan period, it felt like he was on the cusp of being returned to Brighton. Recalled to the squad to face Oxford City, he appeared from the bench and scored a fine goal.
A few days later, Watson was dangerous from the start against Walsall even if his decision-making is inconsistent at best. He’s clearly been instructed to shoot less though, which was the very basic starting point for what we can only hope is his rebirth as an effective player.
Tiring with fifteen minutes to go, Watson was replaced by Woyo Coulibaly. Like Caleb Okoli and De Cordova-Reid, it still baffles to this day to watch players struggling against League Two, or even National League North, opposition who were originally signed to play in the Premier League.
It’s another of Europe’s major leagues that’s the real head-scratcher here, given that Coulibaly played nearly an hour in a Serie A victory over AC Milan as recently as May. The previous month, he played a full 90 at left-back in a win over Champions League superstars Como. But then Victor Kristiansen prospered at left-back in Serie A, so maybe the Italian top flight is not blessed with the best right wingers.
Coulibaly was noticeably awful in his brief cameo against Walsall, who targeted him immediately. On one occasion he was grateful for Aluko’s defensive cover, which is becoming the theme of the season: experience being bailed out by youth.
Aluko has what those in football might call “an interesting profile”. Prone to the odd error, as in the lead-up to Walsall’s goal, and an overly aggressive tackle, he is also capable of the kind of singular action we saw with four minutes to go.
First he deftly pirouetted away from two opponents just inside his own half, then he brilliantly surged up the pitch to help create a chance for De Cordova-Reid, who should have scored.
This was a positive night overall, in which Leicester scored two excellent goals and played some good football in the first half.
We progressed to the next round of an actual competition. But so did Nottingham Forest Under 21s, their first team fresh from beating Manchester City on Saturday. In front of 30,000 people. With 22% possession.
