Leicester City 1 Aston Villa 2: Searching for the right balance
In the final match before a two week international break, Steve Cooper's Foxes took on a Aston Villa side who just learnt their Champions League opponents. Fine margins cost us again but there were positive signs if we can strike a defensive-attacking balance.
In a rare untelevised meeting between the clubs, Leicester fans approached the match with some apprehension. Ok, we got two attacking transfers in as Cooper had wanted (there's an argument he'd have liked a third arriving too) but he hadn't had much time to prepare El Khannouss and Édouard wasn't available due to the late arrival.
Anybody who watched Unai Emery's men take on Arsenal last matchday, end to end football, tons of chances, would have rightly worried about our own capability to stand up to the test.
It's not great to head to the King Power expecting a heavy defeat, but it does act to galvanise the fans. Perhaps it's because we're now based in SK1 but the atmosphere generally felt better yesterday. Even with the added distraction of focus on the referee. More on that later. There are signs of what Cooper is trying to do and the players who are out there are giving it their all.
Cooper made a few changes from the team that lined up at Fulham. Perhaps a pattern we can expect between home and away games or at least for the next one or two while Cooper works on determining the best eleven he has and for who we're playing.
The order of affairs yesterday was clearly to stand up to a key midfield battle and nullify the threats Emery has there. This included a returning Youri Tielemans who enjoyed a similar reception to James Maddison, possibly more boos. Cooper's method was to pack our own midfield, Winks, Skipp and Ndidi all starting.
Ayew came in for De Cordova Reid, Skipp started instead of Buonanotte and perhaps the one not many predicted, Caleb Okoli in for Jannik Vestergaard, who dropped to the bench.
Cooper's choice worked in some respects. We were able to cope better with Villa's threats and limit them in some ways. When they did break we relied upon Mads Hermansen as that last line of defence and he stood up to the test. Villa did eventually break the deadline with a brilliant set piece routine to tee up Onana. Quite why he relished berating our fans so much is unclear.
Leicester's big crime of the first half was how little we pushed our opponents in their box. Or rather, managed to get into their box. Martinez wasn't really challenged in the Villa goal and Jamie Vardy barely saw the ball. The second half trended the same way as previous games, where we got more of a foothold. It was a rollercoaster ride in the second half between the disallowed goal, many head-scratching moments and impact of the substitutes to finally ignite our attack.
However, those key subs came after Villa had extended their lead through Jhon Duran, giving us a hill to climb. Buonanotte pulled one back to keep the hope that hurts us all alive but it was those fine margins again, leaving us still looking for that first win.
Ref and tumble
In an ideal world, you’d leave a football match and either not mention the referee at all, or comment on how little you noticed him during the game.
That would mean you’d watched a game with consistent, fair refereeing in a game that flowed. Unfortunately some weeks you get a guy who seems to think and wants himself to be the main character. Leicester and Villa got the latter in David Coote.
To turn an entire stadium against you is impressive. Both sides will feel they were dealt unfair fouls, yellow cards and that generally he sucked a lot of momentum out of the game with the constant whistles, pull backs and resets on throw-ins and free-kicks. Let’s not even dwell on the time it took him to resolve a drop ball at the outset of the second half.
Villa’s grudge would be in thinking Hermansen should have conceded a penalty for a run-in with Ollie Watkins. Leicester’s will be that we had the ball in the net only for it to be pulled back for another drop ball after Coote found himself in the way, again.
Cooper, booked on the touchline, will no doubt find himself in trouble because while his thoughts post-match were measured, he dared to criticise.
While most of them saw free-kicks as punishment, there was a pleasing roughness to Leicester City in this game. The players weren’t allowing themselves to be pushed around and it was a tougher edge that we’ve needed.
A couple of the players brought into the starting eleven added this element, Skipp wasn’t afraid to get stuck in, attacking like a true box to box midfielder, and he was one of a few who carried out some excellent slide tackles, always getting the ball.
We saw some of the strengths promised from Okoli prior to his signing too, a notable moment in the first half when he squared up to Watkins to stop us conceding a corner. Add in a sprinkle more pace, and while there’s a naivety there, see the second goal where he lost Duran, he might be able to hold Vestergaard out of the side a little longer.
Perhaps it’s Wout Faes who should be more worried about his spot. He had one of those games yesterday where he appears to routinely lose his head and do stupid things. One of which gave Villa a great chance. Harry Winks took it upon himself to berate Faes and the two played out an argument. There’s fight there in this squad, which clearly we’re going to need.
Cooper and his team have managed to instil some belief and hunger in these players that we can compete at this level and it was pleasing to see determination and grit when we conceded, rather than hung heads or shrugging shoulders. If we could balance that out at the other end and be ruthless in attack, it is coming together.
It's not screaming goals
The pre-match concern looking at the lineup was around our ability to get goals, much like in our other two games so far. There’s still eyebrows to raise with a starting attack of 37-year old Jamie Vardy, 32-year old Jordan Ayew and a relatively inexperienced Abdul Fatawu. Having three defensive minded midfielders behind them plays a role too.
Fair to say that it was the kind of lineup that won’t convince the Cooper doubters. But some of that could be turned on those higher up in the club.
Had we not been leaving it until the day of the deadline to finalise the gaps we’ve had since June, maybe Cooper would have had that time to figure out his best balanced team and to have got these attacking players bedded in.
Where you hoped the likes of Vardy and Fatawu wouldn’t have to be coming so deep, as the three defensive midfielders should have been capable of soaking up the pressure and then getting the ball up, it didn’t really work. Not having a man in behind Vardy playing the 10 hurt us and we struggled to get the ball forward and keep it there.
This leads to frustration in the stands when the passing comes back to the defenders or Hermansen but frequently the player on the ball would look up and have no real option to safely put the ball up. Again, if you had a big man up there, it changes that option.
We had several times too where the wrong pass got made. Victor Kristiansen had some of this at Fulham where he’s not really getting support in defensive duties and then when he does break, we aren’t seeing him to pass to.
The stats levelled out by the end of the game, perhaps our chances weren’t quite as clear cut but we didn’t end the game far off on attempts or shots on target. It’s now time for Cooper to decide how we form a better combination of the team that started who competed physically and fought to stop the opposition scoring, versus the team who ended the match and looked far more likely to score.
The triple substitution that introduced Buonanotte, Mavididi and El Khannouss for Skipp, Ayew and Fatawu had a pretty instant impact. Mavididi gave Villa’s right hand side problems, enough that they brought on Nedeljkovic after ten minutes to deal with him. It gave us something different from the first half, that spark and suddenly we were able to get Vardy back involved again.
It’s hard to judge El Khannouss too much, he’s had one day with his new squad, but he’s got the vibes of the duracell bunny for movement. He made an instant impact on one heart in SK1 too by running towards the halfway line when Leicester were defending a corner, not only meaning we had a man forward, but he dragged two Villa players with him, two less options for Tielemans to cross in for. Tidy first touch on him too.
Wilfred Ndidi continues to be an enigma. He obviously can’t command the midfield and storm through like he did to several Championship sides last year. Many Leicester fans would have preferred to have kept Skipp on when the slew of attacking changes came, but Cooper preferred Ndidi.
He did grab the assist on the Buonanotte goal too. But then you also have to present exhibit b when the ball fell to him in the box and his response was to take a wayward shot that was never going towards goal.
Balancing fine margins
Fine margins have very much been a theme for our season so far. Twice, like with Fulham, Aston Villa punished us for momentary lapses of concentration or for not seeing the move unfolding around us. In both of these cases, the nearest player was a young one who hasn’t played at this level much, Fatawu (for the free kick) and Okoli for the Duran goal.
Arguably, we also got punished for the decisions made in personnel. The substitutions were excellent but the timing of them left something to be desired. It’s fine margins in terms of shape and personnel too and we need better balance.
Cooper has two weeks now to work with a portion of the squad and to decide what our best starting eleven is that has the right equilibrium of enough attacking presence to get the ball in the box and keep it, while ensuring we remain resilient defensively and don’t get overrun in midfield.
Some conclusions seem clear, Mavididi has to be starting the next game. He was a danger throughout and got his reward by setting up the Buonanotte goal with a lovely run down the wing and an excellent cross in. While the choice to not use him more plays on many minds, maybe there is method in the madness.
Mavididi looked particularly hungry when coming on. He didn’t have competition for his spot at all last year, and he didn’t need it either, he was largely very good, but it never hurts to have that little bit of extra effort for fear of not playing.
Arguably, Ayew was good and his defensive efforts were key. But he didn't unlock the Villa defence in the way Mavididi did in half the time. Some of the other decision points will be harder for Cooper. Okoli stood up fairly well to a tough test, but he is still young and green to this level. How to deal with the Skipp and Ndidi of it all feels like the hardest choice.
Next up in the Premier League it's another trip to London to face our new feeder club, Crystal Palace on September 14th. There are some international games you might want to keep an eye on in the meantime, or our raft of loanees that left Seagrave for League One and Two clubs will also still be in action next weekend.
