Crystal Palace 2 Leicester City 2: A choose your own villain adventure in London
Away trips to Crystal Palace have felt pretty miserable for a few years now. But Leicester went 2-0 up. And then decided to channel Everton by inspiring hope and ripping it away. A sucker punch end to our Selhurst Park visit.
A sold out away end headed to Crystal Palace hoping that this season would be different than the last two or three times. The international break was viewed as good timing for Leicester by the majority, time to bed in some of the new players and work on some plays and tactics.
The thing everybody was waiting for pre-match was the lineup. Ok, this was an away game, so we likely weren’t going to have the lion’s share of the ball or of chances but we had been screaming out for more attack and creativity in the starting line up.
No bueno. Cooper made just one change from the team that lined up against Aston Villa. Stephy Mavididi, who it was clear after his cameo last time had to start, did so but at the expense of Abdul Fatawu.
Jordan Ayew switched over to cover that side and face his old team, which never seems to give goals for Leicester in the way it does for other teams. The former Palace man was unlucky perhaps not to open the scoring though early into the game.
The defensive midfield trio of Winks, Skipp and Ndidi were all present though the formation told us that our Nigerian would play in behind Vardy in the advanced role. You could guess the response online to all of this.
Cooper probably earned back some patience when we didn't start too badly. Jamie Vardy popped up yet again to haunt Palace midway through the first half. It was trademark Vardy after Ndidi set him on his way, battling to win the ball back and kick on. We had other chances in the first half, putting Caleb Okoli to good use on set pieces and showing what our set piece coach has been up to.
Coming out of halftime with a lead, Cooper was in no rush to make any changes. Oliver Glasner looked to have rallied his side at the break and they applied more pressure, having been booed off maybe serving extra motivation. But things got better for Cooper’s men as Ndidi played his role again to tee up Mavididi who put the Foxes 2-0 up with an emphatic hit inside the penalty box.
Palace’s main man Mateta had a lengthy VAR wait to see if his immediate response at the other end would stand. When it did, Palace had the fans back on side again and the momentum swung.
Leicester fans had the script on autopilot at this stage. It was a case of defending deep and just trying to keep Palace out. An uncomfortable experience, and a familiar one if you flash back to so many games in the last two seasons.
Despite how hard the players were working as Palace brought on attacking player after attacking player to bolster their efforts and it felt like an equaliser was coming. Their substitutions added pressure and one won the penalty.
Cooper's own response was to swap Mavididi for Fatawu, before getting even more defensive with Choudhury on for Ndidi and Coady on for Ayew late in the game. None of these substitutions paid off.
A decision that feels like this week's sliding doors moment. After just eight minutes on, Coady inexplicably decided to lunge at Ismaila Sarr, with no hope of touching the ball, in the box. Hermansen went the wrong way for the penalty and Palace were level again, Mateta getting the brace with just three minutes to play.
Photo: Becky Taylor
Two points thrown away
It was a tough one to take for the players, and another infuriating one for the fans. Horribly similar to our last outing at Selhurst park where we'd taken the lead, gifted Palace an own goal just three minutes later and then Mateta popped up in the 90th minute to crush any dreams of a point.
The cherry on the cake that day was how Brendan Rodgers approached the post-match interview. The usual dose of delusion and no responsibility. Cooper’s response was less inflammatory and more realistic, he called out the issue of how we reacted to our second goal but did call out progress. He didn’t come out and take full responsibility though as some fans want.
The big question is how this result, and how it feels, impacts the players. This season was always going to need a lot of resilience and character. To the players’ credit, they've shown plenty of this despite not getting the results.
This draw is a tougher one to swallow and it'll be interesting to see the response against Everton next weekend. Both sides are in dire need of that first win and have suffered throwing leads away this season.
If the rumours of some unrest in the wider dressing room are true, Cooper does have his challenges off the field. Questions will continue to be raised about why Ricardo Pereira, a key player and our captain last year, cannot get minutes in the Premier League. The exclusion of Jannik Vestergaard feels less controversial when Okoli has slotted in so nicely but after signing a new three year deal, he’ll likely be frustrated too.
Cooper talked about togetherness after the draw, and we have looked that way so far on the pitch. It is another point towards the goal of staying up, but three points would have been huge in another week where a lot of the other relegation candidates also dropped points.
If you've been tracking expected points, a reminder we are ahead of early predictions TFW made, then you might have earmarked this as an optimistic possibility of a point. Offer a 2-2 before the match and a lot of Leicester fans would have taken it. Post match it doesn't feel like such a great result.
How often do you find yourselves two goals up away from home? It's not expected and you really should be coming away with the three points if you do.
On the plus side, this squad does look capable of giving it everything they’ve got and giving us a shot at survival. For some though, Cooper has very much stuck a target on his back and the question is still out there in terms of an identity for his team and if he can get the best out of them.
Choose your own villain
For some, this choice was already made at 2pm when the line ups came out and looked somewhat overly defensive again on paper. Although Ndidi may have proved a few naysayers wrong, both of his assists were lovely, this was largely another failed experiment on the art of finding precise balance to get us results.
When a draw feels more like a loss at the final whistle, somebody is naturally going to wear the dunce cap and be cast as the villain. As this is Leicester City, your choice of who is three fold. That's right, it's a choose your own villain story.
Contender number 1: Steve Cooper
The easy choice. For most anyway. There are some who were never going to give Cooper a chance and there were many who were happy to extend him the courtesy of backing him, assuming he delivered results. Or at least performances to be proud of.
To fight his corner in one respect, there were positives to take away, individual performances and some of the counter-attacking swagger we showed in moments. He has got the players fighting and working hard too.
The two things that continue to frustrate are his decisions. Who he decides to play and the changes he makes. There's less you can say to defend him.
While we got Mavididi, the other attacking players he was so desperate to get in, were nowhere to be seen, although some of this comes down to the ones he wanted versus what the club got, see here for excellent analysis.
Fatawu on the bench can possibly be chalked up to his travels with Ghana and that it has been a tougher start to Premier League life. But there was no sniff of Buonanotte or El Khannouss at any stage of the game.
Fresh legs when you are largely trapped in your own half defending a lead isn't a bad idea. But we have never been a club great at just trying to hang onto a narrow lead and successfully executing that goal.
The decision to bring on both Choudhury in general but ahead of Ricardo and then to follow up with Coady are the big talking points. Neither paid off and that responsibility sits with Cooper.
Contender number 2: Conor Coady
The harsh choice. It was only our second sighting of Coady this year, the Seagrave injury curse living strong. He had got some minutes against Tranmere in the Carabao Cup but for his first Premier League minutes, he was probably always going to be a bit rusty.
Yes, he was the culprit for the penalty and it's written all over his face the minute he goes in for Sarr. He’s an experienced player who really should know better. He’s probably also the person who is most angry and disappointed in himself.
Things you can't blame Coady for though: being substituted on. That decision sits with Cooper as above. Given the amount of players with defensive strengths on the pitch, did we need Coady? We had been up against the Palace attack for a while but the choice to remove Ayew to get another defender on did raise eyebrows.
Contender number 3: VAR
The choice that is the price of avoiding deductions? It's sort of difficult to get as angry about this one. Leicester City themselves voted, like all other clubs not called Wolves, to keep VAR and this is the consequence of that. Although seemingly we don't love to face up to consequences.
Looking for replays, the commentators were incredibly confident that Mateta was “a foot off side” so were surprised when the graphic came up, and he still looked off, yet it said the goal would stand. It seems James Justin, not shown in the image they chose to share initially, and his outstretched leg were playing the Palace man onside. It's all very clear and not strange at all...
Even the images that have come out after are less than direct angles and there's more lines than seems necessary. VAR decisions are largely whatever moments now as fans because no matter how long they take, or if they’re wrong, nothing seems to change.
We'll likely get one go our way soon, and some would argue that after our defence to avoid PSR charges that we deserve anything like this. Given that murky outcome and how much we've rattled everybody, maybe we need to get used to the luck falling foul elsewhere.
VAR can't really be the villain though when this incident essentially happened from kick off following our second goal. So much for composure and resilience. The momentum shifted to Palace after that and we had to endure the onslaught. Something we just about did until additional time.
Photo: Becky Taylor
Vintage Vardy and Solid Skipp
The result and the substitutes are what will be reflected on but there were positives. The Vardy goal was a trademark, we’ve seen him do this a million times but it’s never less entertaining. A 37 year old outpacing one of the best English centre backs we’ve got is a win for wily strikers nationwide. Shame he didn’t recreate the eagle celebration though.
The other talking point that should be happening is how well Oliver Skipp has settled in. It’s easy to forget he joined after the season started because he looks like he’s been doing the role for years. Perhaps his prior experience with Winks helps, but Skipp was great at Palace. Getting stuck in all over the pitch and just so solid next to Winks.
Okoli and Faes seem to have settled well into their partnership. Faes made some very key last ditch tackles while Okoli remained calm and present, providing threats from set pieces too. It’s not likely we’ll see Vestergaard getting that spot back based on this.
Steve Cooper’s men have the week to pick themselves up, process this and decide what tweaks should be made. Everton are the visitors to the King Power next weekend. A game that feels huge for a September fixture.
The away side are still hunting for their first point, with Cooper’s men trying to go one better than the two draws we’ve notched up so far.
