Brighton and Hove Albion 2 Leicester City 2: Great success!
We scored a goal! AND THEN ANOTHER ONE!
Presumably, there will be some people who will give Ruud van Nistelrooy plaudits for this result. You can imagine it from those “in the game”. How it would have taken character to haul Leicester City out of a miserable eight-game losing streak. Changes to the first eleven that had an effect. Substitutions that helped the team.
In truth, this game should be the final evidence anyone needs that van Nistelrooy is not the man to take Leicester City forward.
Because these changes could have been made months ago, during either of the stretches when he decided Jordan Ayew and Bobby Decordova-Reid were Leicester’s best options on the wing or Patson Daka could play as some kind of hybrid creative wide attacker.
The changes were largely enforced ones, Caleb Okoli and Kasey McAteer making only their fourth league starts under van Nistelrooy and Stephy Mavididi coming in for his first start since January.
It would be revisionist to suggest Okoli, Mavididi or McAteer as individuals would have made any significant difference during the recent poor runs. Okoli was disastrous in the 4-0 home defeat to Brentford and Leicester lost all of Mavididi’s previous seven starts. On results alone, McAteer can probably feel most hard done by as two of his previous three starts were van Nistelrooy’s unbeaten first two games before the misery set in.
Plus there’s the unavoidable fact that none of them are really Premier League footballers, as partially demonstrated by the fact Brighton should have been out of sight in this game long before Leicester unfathomably scored not once but twice.
But at least they help bring a bit of chaos to proceedings, a symbolic sign of something different. Leicester had become dismally predictable in the past few months, with nobody in the team capable of committing a defender, taking him on and even threatening to go past him. Mavididi did that several times in the opening period and it was clear he would be Leicester’s best hope of a goal.
Despite not scoring a goal at home since the Stone Age, the most pressing issue this season has been the woeful defensive options available. Brighton flooded forward and Yankuba Minteh and Simon Adingra should both have opened the scoring before the goal eventually arrived.
Conor Coady protested the award of a penalty after half an hour but there should have been no arguments with the decision, Coady having clearly shifted his arm towards a goalbound shot. Joao Pedro succeeded where Cole Palmer failed by beating Mads Hermansen in front of the travelling fans and the wait for a clean sheet will roll on to next Sunday’s visit of the champions-elect.
Seven minutes later came the moment some Leicester fans didn’t think would arrive this season. Leicester City Football Club scored a goal. It was the first league goal since Bilal El Khannouss’s winner at Tottenham in January and it was scored by Stephy Mavididi.
Time and again, Leicester worked the ball to Mavididi who danced inside and threatened the Brighton goal. In the 23rd minute he shot wastefully over when McAteer was well placed to be played in. In the 38th minute he made amends by firing under Bart Verbruggen with his weaker left foot after his initial effort was blocked. Finally, finally a goal for those who travel up and down the country supporting this football team to celebrate.
It’s not clear whether Fabian Hurzeler marched into the home dressing room at half time and said “Jungs, es ist Leicester” but Brighton’s players came out for the second half like they’d been reminded they were playing against a team who have only beaten Tottenham since early December.
It took just ten minutes for their reward to arrive, a ball over the top catching out Luke Thomas who hauled down Matt O’Riley and, after another lengthy VAR check, conceded a penalty. Joao Pedro scored from the spot for the second time. It seemed inevitable Brighton would go on to win.
A triple change turned the tide. Ricardo Pereira replaced Thomas, with James Justin switching to the left and Ricardo playing the inverted right-back role he made his own last season. Oliver Skipp came on for Wilfred Ndidi and looked every inch the competent £10million-or-so player he could have been all season rather than a £25million symbol of Leicester’s awful record in the transfer market. Jamie Vardy trotted off having not affected the game and Patson Daka took his place up front.
Daka is obviously a terrible player at this level but he can at least stretch defences if given the chance. Rightly or wrongly, Brighton were spooked and suddenly Leicester looked almost like a Premier League team for much of the final half hour.
As with Okoli and Mavididi, this isn’t about the merits of Ricardo (mostly injured), Skipp (limited) or Daka (rubbish) but the evidence that these players are capable of better than losing by at least two goals every single week. It might not be a squad that was ever capable of staying up. It is a squad that should have been used to much better effect.
It was fitting that Okoli scored the equaliser, powering home a close-range header from an El Khannouss free kick in front of an away end that knew the team was doomed anyway but deservedly made the most of the chance to celebrate a goal.
There were further chances at both ends, as Brighton ended up with an xG of more than 4 but couldn’t add to their tally, while Daka’s low shot was well saved by Verbruggen. Talented 16-year-old Jake Evans made his Leicester debut for the final seconds to cap a fine season at PL2 level and hopefully it’s the first appearance of many.
So Brighton join Tottenham in the hall of shame. To lose 15 out of 16 games but still avoid defeat to two teams in the first 32 games of the season suggests these two teams might have a touch of the mentality midgets about them.
Leicester City will be a Championship team next season. But at least we didn’t lose nine in a row. Because that would have been embarrassing.
