Leicester 2 Brighton 2 - Foxes weather the storm to salvage a late point
A lot of people streamed out of the King Power, soggy and disappointed as substitute Yankuba Minteh put Brighton 2-0 up. But Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side embodied the Foxes Never Quit strapline, spearheaded by our captain to salvage a late point.
The Seagulls couldn’t stop him and neither could Storm Darragh. It’s Jamie Vardy’s world and all we can do as Foxes fans is revel in it.
Ruud van Nistelrooy still hasn’t had quite a full week of training yet with the Leicester City squad but he had more time to prepare them, assess their strengths and weaknesses and impose his ethos with the added benefit of having already secured a win.
If the West Ham victory played into the hands of the narrative and was all vibes, Brighton travelling to the King Power had the potential to undo a lot of that and serve as a slap back to the reality of a relegation battle. The fact that instead we pulled off a superb comeback to shock the Seagulls is telling of what change can be made in a short space of time.
van Nistelrooy couldn’t name an unchanged lineup, Facundo Buonanotte unable to play against his parent team. Who should take his spot made up a lot of the pre-match conversation, most fans aware that this was going to be a tougher test than West Ham.
Jordan Ayew was the chosen player, ahead of Stephy Mavididi. It was unchanged otherwise which did generate some concern around the pace at which Brighton could break versus our defensive players.
Brighton are the team a lot of us are jealous of. Not just for their recruitment strategy, a carefully constructed conveyer belt of young and upcoming talent they can develop and profit off, versus our recent scattergun, ask the magic 8 ball what position and/or player to sign approach. But their style of football, ease of passing and the goals they score are impressive.
Seeing the names and depth West Ham had on their bench was one thing but Brighton’s was equally impressive. A triple sub felt like an upgrade on the players they replaced as they brought on Danny Welbeck, Matt O’Riley and Yankuba Minteh. A theme of Ruud’s early games seems to be making the most of what he’s got.
Luckily, that also includes one Jamie Vardy.
No need to teach this old dog new tricks
The Goat delivering again is no surprise. Vardy’s approach to ageing seems to be more in sync with a fine wine than his Red Bull guzzling habits imply. Seeing him turn it on and deliver a goal when we need it is pretty par for the course at this stage. But how teams are supposed to deal with it is another matter.
Brighton couldn't, despite keeping us and him quiet for spells of the game. It was easy to remark that in the first half he looked a little off the pace. It wasn't connecting for Leicester generally. Some promising moves were snuffed out by poor decision making and players not quite on each other’s wavelengths.
Despite this, the Foxes weren't entirely out of it at any point. Mads Hermansen made a couple of smart saves in the first half, while if Bilal El Khannouss had just better read Vardy's intention early into the game, we could have been looking at another early goal. Vardy wasn't involved heavily.
Tariq Lamptey gave Brighton the lead with a shot no goalkeeper anywhere would save but a goal had been coming. The closest we came was when Victor Kristiansen fired a ball across the penalty area, James Justin getting onto the end of it but blocked by the Brighton goalkeeper. Ayew was looking like our weak link and the suggestion of getting Mavididi on at half time seemed wise.
Ruud kept the faith though, using his half time team talk to ask for more from the players. And more he got. There was more urgency in the second half, more chances and more involvement. It was disruptive to concede a second goal but Vardy was bolstered in attack by Patson Daka, a rare outing of two up top.
Credit to van Nistelrooy too, bringing on Bobby De Cordova-Reid could have been a talking point for a square peg in round hole situation had he not been instrumental in both goals. He received a lovely pass off Oliver Skipp and provided the assist for a classic sort of Jamie Vardy goal. There was hope again.
The play from Vardy for De Cordova-Reid to equalise was perhaps even more impressive. Ice cold, knew exactly where to put it and followed on from the great work done by Mavididi to win the ball back. Unselfish and genius as every defender expected him to shoot.
A note too that this is Vardy's third game in 8 days at nearly 38 years old and he still looked fresh as a daisy at the end.
Soumare and a tale of perseverance
We’ve enjoyed various redemption and renaissance stories at Leicester of late. Boubakary Soumaré might be the least likely of them all. This is his fourth season at Leicester and the first one where we're starting to really see the player we thought we'd signed.
At 25, perhaps age plays a part. But he was full of energy and movement against Brighton, coming off the back of a good showing against West Ham. A criticism I've levelled at him before is his calmness leaning too much to being laid back but it was a perfect balance today. He knew exactly when and where to inject some urgency and when to slow it down. He tried some more creative passes and generally got forward more.
Had Vardy not instigated the comeback, Soumaré could have been in with a shout for man of the match. His perseverance and the way he just continued to push forward as we pressed for more was great. Strong, imposing and skilful.
The only downside was the Frenchman picking up a yellow card, his fifth and resulting in a suspension for next week. With Harry Winks’ return uncertain and Wilfred Ndidi going off in the second half, we could be looking a little light in central midfield to face Newcastle.
Soumare wasn’t the only one, this team look like a team who didn't stop believing in themselves the second we conceded a goal. Heads don’t drop, there’s less finger pointing and bickering. Instead, players are frustrated with themselves for losing the ball or not completing a pass.
Bilal El Khannouss is a perfect example of this. With Buonanotte absent, we really needed him to kick on from the performance against West Ham. He didn't hit those same heights today, maybe showing the naivety of a young player who's learning the Premier League but you cannot fault him for effort and passion.
Several times he didn't see a run or passed the wrong way and he was visibly angry at himself, keen to make up for any mistakes. It was a theme across the pitch. You can be frustrated with some of the choices players made, or our ability to pick up second balls and some of the luck. But this team was trying and didn't give up.
It’s hard to imagine this game would have finished 2-2 with the mentality we had previously. Whatever work Ruud may want to do with them, the shift in their body language in just a week is noticeable. Perhaps bringing in the leadership and calm that you get from Conor Coady and Jannik Vestergaard plays a role within that, but all players look like they believe in themselves and the team.
A four-point swing
If you’d looked at the scores and the Premier League table at 3.30pm, things didn’t look so great for Leicester. Minteh put Brighton 2-0 up in a move that was signposted so early, yet Kristiansen, and a flying Coady, couldn’t stop him. Ipswich were 1-0 up against Bournemouth, meaning while they’d stay in the bottom three, they were within a point of Leicester.
By 4pm, Leicester had salvaged a point and left Brighton hanging on and Bournemouth had completed their own late comeback to topple Ipswich. Leaving Leicester four points clear of the Tractor Boys and leapfrogging Crystal Palace to sit 16th.
Our flying Dutchman will be pleased to see his ideas coming together. We didn't give up as many shots to Brighton, showing an improvement in defence. It's early days and there's more improvements to come. There's a brilliant full breakdown of the tactics employed today over on X.
Essentially our weak points are still the same. Whether there's money available in January or not is unclear but we look short at both left back and right back. Victor Kristiansen was great in moments today but his part in Brighton's second, and a lot of their first half efforts coming from his side highlighted some weakness there. While James Justin didn't have as many battles with Mitoma as we all expected, we are giving up too many chances from out wide on both sides.
A lot of the frustration and grumbling today came from our inability to make better choices and how many second or third balls we gave up. It all felt a bit too easy and we were fortunate both that Hermansen is an excellent shot stopper and that Brighton didn't impose themselves as much as they would want.
The post-match comments from van Nistelrooy seemed spot on. The stats show that on reflection a draw was about the right result, even if Brighton will feel a bit sucker-punched by it. Fabian Hurzeler commented that the whole stadium thought the game was done. Perhaps true of a portion of the crowd, this was a particularly cold and damp affair, but our manager and our players never seemed to have taken that on board.
At one point when Soumare barrelled towards the box and we won a freekick, you wondered if we could be pushing for a last minute winner. It wasn’t to be but the energy in the crowd was electric again and the journey home was a much happier one.
Our upcoming fixtures are a concern. Take Wolves at home in a couple of weeks out of the equation, which is looking like a big game already, and it’s hard to see where we’ll pick up points from away trips to Newcastle, Liverpool and welcoming Manchester City to the King Power.
This point looks even more important when factoring that in. It’ll be fascinating to see how RvN tackles these next fixtures and balances squad injuries and fatigue.
