Leicester City 3 Birmingham City 0: A homegrown team of our own
Ah, the magic of the cup. Not quite the same when you’re pitched against a side in your own league. Jamie Thorpe was at the King Power to see if Maresca’s men could keep the cup dream alive and get the Foxes back to winning ways.
On a day when much of the talk was of home-grown Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s potential move away from his boyhood club, Leicester’s academy proved that he is not the only player with potential in the City ranks.
The news of KDH’s potential move away from the East Midlands came as something of a shock to us all as the news broke last night. Brighton and Brentford are credited with a serious interest, (although they will have to be serious indeed to match Leicester’s understandably high valuation), but transfer-based-meltdowns were put on hold as there was just the small matter of an FA Cup tie against a Birmingham City side with little left to lose.
The team news was largely as expected. Ten changes, with only Hamza Choudhury keeping his place from the team that drew with Ipswich on Monday. He was one of five academy graduates to start the game, Maresca choosing to utilise the full squad and provide a well-earned rest for his senior stalwarts.
Birmingham were well supported having sold out the away end, and frankly their travelling fans should have had significantly more to celebrate at half-time, with only an inspired Jakub Stolarczyk keeping the score level.
Stolarczyk to the rescue
Chance after chance rained down on the Leicester goal. I’d say Birmingham were playing straight through the Leicester midfield, but that would imply that we had one out there in the first place. It was simply non-existent, and the antithesis to a normal Maresca showing – unorganised, disjointed and largely unbothered.
This was a surprise, despite ten changes, Leicester still had senior players on the pitch who are arguably good enough to, you know, complete a three-yard pass. Belgium International Dennis Praet wandered about seemingly confused as to why he wasn’t on a physio table, and even the usually reliable Conor Coady was being turned inside out.
Choudhury struggled massively having been asked to do the Harry Winks role. It is a position where mistakes are often more costly and so his errors were immediately obvious, or as my old man put it “the issue with Choudhury is that when he is useless, he is really bloody useless”, Peter Drury he isn’t but he makes a good point.
Instead, it fell to the kids to provide a bit of stability and calm. Brandon Cover was excellent despite the heavy pressure. Usually a midfielder, he received the ball well and looked to go forward when he could, he should’ve had an assist too, playing a delicious ball that Jamie Vardy should have done much better with.
Ben Nelson also showed exactly why Maresca has been waxing lyrical about him, he slotted in effortlessly and looked right at home at the heart of the defence, even if he spent a majority of his first half making last-ditch blocks. Finally, stand-in keeper Stolarczyk made a series of excellent stops, and must’ve been wondering where his teammates had got to.
Half-time substitutions turn the tide
Half-time could not have come soon enough and in reality it was almost laughable that we were not behind at the break.
Maresca has taken some justifiable criticism for his substitutions in recent weeks, but they were absolutely key in turning the game on its head this time. The Foxes made a triple change at the break, Justin, Ricardo and McAteer coming on for the rusty-looking Doyle, Marcal and a rather unlucky Cover respectively.
Their effect was instantaneous.
Akgün had been busy in the first-half, but struggled without a platform behind him. However, on this occasion he found himself in space, feeding Marc Albrighton who delivered a sumptuous cross to the head of Vardy who had escaped his man, the thirty-seven year old making no mistake with his header. You had to laugh really, against the run of play was not even close to doing the opening goal justice.
From there on though it was all Leicester, and as they have been so many times this season, they were absolutely ruthless. Ricardo got a grip of the midfield, showcasing his sumptuous dribbling and deceptive reading of the game, and the athleticism of Justin meant any Birmingham attacks were snuffed out quickly. Leicester dominated possession and always looked the likelier of the two sides to score. Nelson grew more in stature as a result, and looked more and more like a player with serious potential.
Enjoying some vintage 15/16 moments
Albrighton pulled out his party trick of “some fast feet that you honestly just never expect even though we’ve seen it a thousand times” which fed Tom Cannon in space. His first thought as always was to get the ball goalward, which didn’t work on this occasion, but it did create some chaos, resulting in the ball falling to Akgün who just belted it into the top corner. Poor John Ruddy barely had time to blink let alone get a hand to the thunderbolt of a shot.
The game was effectively over as a contest at this point, but there was still time for a collector's item: a Dennis Praet goal, calmly swept home after more good work by Cannon. There was even time for a smile from the Belgian: the Magic of the Cup indeed!
Maresca quite rightly lavished praise on his young Foxes, after all not many teams can boast seven academy players on the pitch; but he will be equally pleased to have seen the half-time reaction. Once again they looked every inch a team in a different league which as we all know, is the goal this season.
But that being said, there are some beatable teams left in the competition, and not many will fancy a trip to Leicester. The Foxes find themselves just one win from the quarter finals – is Maresca’s squad strong enough to fight on two fronts? Time will tell.
