Leicester City 5 Southampton 0: Fatawu’s five star Foxes
A season that looked in tatters a week ago now looks almost certain to end in promotion. On Tuesday night, Leicester destroyed Southampton to put themselves within touching distance of an instant return to the big time.
For long stretches of this promotion campaign, it has felt like a season bereft of memorable moments. A season of triumph, comprised of 35 routine wins against The Likes of Plymouth And Stoke whose main emotional tug was to infuriate everyone about the way they were achieved.
Over the last month, everything has changed. Leicester’s alarming wobble has endowed match after match with huge importance, ratcheting up the intensity and agony among a fanbase that’s not renowned for relentless positivity. At the King Power, four times in a row, the team has stepped up and delivered.
First there was Norwich, a game the players themselves treated “like a cup final”, where they fought back from a goal down to win. Then Birmingham, where Stephy Mavididi headed home the winner in the dying minutes. Then West Brom, where Hamza Choudhury delivered one of the single greatest defensive displays of all time, an iconic performance that will live long in Leicester history.
And then there was this, the coup de grace, a scintillating display that took the Foxes to the brink of promotion and left Southampton’s dignity in tatters by the side of the road. A night when they scored five brilliant goals and you still felt they left a couple more on the table.
Photo: Adam Hodges
The main man
The only place to start is with Abdul Fatawu. If this was the best team performance of the season, his was certainly the best individual display.
We have been blessed to witness the full gamut of right wing play over the past decade, and the only way to say it is that Fatawu went the full Riyad Mahrez in this game. He has flashed serious skills for most of the season, the ability to just destroy a full back 1v1, go past him for pace on the outside, or cut inside and create danger. Until now, it hadn’t translated into a truly devastating performance.
The biggest problem has been his own goal output. He’s been a superb creator for others. Although he trails Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in terms of raw output, adjusted for playing time he’s been Leicester's most prolific creator. By that metric, he leads the league in expected assists, he creates more chances than any other Leicester player, and he’s one of the top ball carriers in the division as well.
On Tuesday night he literally added the finishing touches to those numbers. He doubled his goal tally for the season, so that his stats now better reflect his value to this team. And yet he still could have had more.
Photo: Helen Thompson
The tone was set very early in this game. If Leicester’s two encounters with Leeds have been like Premier League games, the quality of football far ahead of anything else in the division, and the two games with Ipswich have had periods where Leicester were pinned back by an intense, well-coached opponent, the two games with Southampton have been like Leicester lining up against their younger brother in the back garden.
Inside ten minutes, Fatawu got in for the first time and shot rather tamely at Alex McCarthy. The reason he hasn’t scored more is this type of finish, lacking any kind of finesse. By the time he got his next chance, Leicester had created a half chance for Jamie Vardy, and had Fatawu been able to better control a high ball in the area he almost certainly would have created a goal for Dewsbury-Hall.
The key to the Foxes' play is always the intent. When they engage the full press, with the centre backs crunching into opposition forwards in their own half, it’s usually a good sign. The problems come, as they did for Southampton in this game, when they sit on their heels on the ball.
Playing so aggressively from the back can be risky. It can leave the defence completely exposed and give up great chances. But it is clearly suited to the players Leicester have. With James Justin in at left back, he has the pace to play the covering role, while Wout Faes was born to be a maniac, launching forward to clatter opponents at the first sign of the ball. You also have the benefit that even if you get it wrong, quite often the only punishment is a harmless free kick.
Faes’ ability to win the ball in those situations has created goals for Leicester before. Most memorably when he demolished Harry Kane in the 4-1 fever dream win over Tottenham last February. In this case, he went through the back of Che Adams, the ball broke to Dewsbury-Hall in space, who found Fatawu’s brilliant, classic run inside his full back. This time, the Ghanaian did show some finesse, and stroked Leicester into the lead.
After that, Adams spent the entire game wandering around with his tail between his legs, completely alpha’d by Faes and Jannik Vestergaard, who smashed into him at every opportunity. Without a focal point to break the Leicester press, Southampton showed no signs of being anything resembling a good team.
Chin up, Jon
It’s ironic that the best performance of the season came in a game where Leicester had just 34% possession. But it’s maybe less a violation of the Idea than it might appear. While Enzo Maresca wants to keep the ball, he’s about control above all else. Leicester were able to completely control this game without having to bother with the ball.
The only two moments of danger were self-inflicted. One came when Mads Hermansen inexplicably dropped a cross under no pressure but it fortunately landed on Ricardo Pereira’s chest. The other came from the second half kick off, as Leicester’s bizarre ‘to you, to you, to you’ routine between Ricardo and Harry Winks was disrupted by Southampton just running directly into the middle of them and taking the ball. That one may perhaps need a rethink.
Otherwise, the second half was one of utter domination. Fatawu stole the show. He blazed over after good work from Wilfred Ndidi, then he took Kyle Walker-Peters’ lunch money on the right wing, cut inside and smashed over the bar again. There was a brief interlude for Stephy Mavididi to float a glorious cross onto Ndidi’s head for the second goal before Fatawu delivered his trademark finish, cutting inside to curl over the goalkeeper and into the far corner.
Photo: Jamie Thorpe
At that point, the dam broke. One minute, Mavididi was showboating in one corner, doing stepovers and casually rolling his foot over the ball, ten seconds later a brilliant sequence of passing between Mavididi, Dewsbury-Hall, and Hamza Choudhury fed Fatawu on the right, and he produced a glorious cross for Vardy to finish first time.
Each of these goals was greeted by Sky cutting to a delighted Top in the crowd, celebrating wildly with those around him. It was a source of great amusement, as the goals rained in, that we also got to see Jon Rudkin, sat next to the big chief, react to this triumphant moment in Leicester City history as if someone had just stolen his lunch money.
By the time Rudkin had wiped the stony faced stare from his face, it was five. Southampton forayed forward, lost the ball, and a few seconds later it was in the back of their net. Dewsbury-Hall carried the ball 50 yards up the pitch then fed Vardy, who knew exactly who was free at the back post and squared it for Fatawu to complete his hat trick.
Photo: Jamie Barnard
The GOAT lives on
It is only fair to pick out Vardy for special praise. With more space to work in over the past two games, he has been superb leading the line. We’ve seen some classic throwback Vardy runs behind defenders, prompting them into mad clearances or bundling him over for a penalty, as happened on Saturday. He’s scored in both, vindicating the fact he was picked for back to back games only a few days apart.
Photo: Helen Thompson
He, somewhat remarkably for a man who seems to have failed to touch the ball in roughly half of his appearances, now has 16 goals from 16 starts. He leads the league in xG per 90 minutes (amusingly, Postman Patson Daka is second). For all the grief certain, alleged club analysts who may or may not be posting provocative videos on Twitter have had, they might be right that the problem has been more about taking chances than a fundamental problem with the tactic.
Or maybe there are certain types of opponent that Leicester are perfectly primed to beat. Southampton, clearly big fans of the number nine, have lost 9-1 to Leicester on aggregate this season.
Or maybe, even, the club doing ridiculous things to annoy the fanbase is some kind of magic motivational tactic. Norwich was the first home game after the PSR shenanigans, then the powers-that-be warmed up for this one by putting the season ticket prices up and charging people £25 for a thin piece of plastic that they already own.
There was a banner and some small chants against the £25 that didn’t really take off. Instead, a jubilant mood took over as the goals rained down. A match that looked extremely threatening a few days ago turned out to be a walk in the park, and we’re now just a few steps from promotion.
Photo: Becky Taylor
This campaign has defied all sense and logic. A record-breaking run followed by relegation form followed by the sudden, surprise appearance of a backbone and then the most devastating performance of the season. Leicester could be promoted without playing another game, more likely they will need to beat Preston on Monday to seal it.
It seems like it’s in the bag. But at this point, who knows what to expect. It would be an outrageous reversal of fortune for Leicester to fail to go up from here, but there are still plenty of demons lurking that won’t be truly exorcised until it’s confirmed.
At least now, though, we have had some magic moments to remember this season by. Individual and team performances to live alongside previous promotion campaigns. A chance to get promoted on a high, rather than the wheezing, stumbling road to the playoffs that threatened to barge its way into our lives.
One more push, we’re almost there.
Photo: Adam Hodges
