Leicester City 1 Middlesbrough 2: A tale of tactics and missed chances
Middlesbrough claim their crown of having now done the double over the Foxes. It was a bad day at the office for Enzo Maresca’s men, a mix of some tactical outclassing and squandered chances. A case of a great Fosse Way meetup before the game and a lovely Union FS Tifo, shame about the game.
Chapeau to Michael Carrick and his Middlesbrough team for not coming to the King Power to only put eleven men behind the ball but for deploying the exact type of tactics to cause us problems and gift them a 2-0 lead before half-time. It’s not a position Maresca or his men have faced often this season going into the half-time break. A new kind of challenge for a manager, and quite a few players, who are learning.
Middlesbrough aren’t the only team to execute a plan that’s stumped us but they certainly achieved it a little earlier into the game and it looked to shake us. Both goals came from their pressing and doggedness, mixed with physicality and then countering quickly. Things had to fall into place, Justin not tripping over for example or a key tackle. Neither of which came and the away end was rightly bouncing. Leicester weren’t playing terribly but it was lacking a cutting edge and a few too many players were collectively having off days.
Unlike Sheffield Wednesday, Carrick’s men saw merit in not only closing Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu down but effectively marking them out of the game. Couple that with sub-par performances from Dewsbury-Hall (even if some of his crosses looked more likely to lead to goals in the first half) and Ricardo (by his own standards) and this very much felt like one of those days.
It’s hard not to bemoan the officiating in this game. Yes, Leicester needed to do better but it doesn’t help when there’s some incredibly odd decisions and things being missed. The time wasting from the Boro goalkeeper, how Clarke managed to stay on the pitch despite his early yellow card and only four minutes of added time at the end? Chris Kavanagh didn’t cover himself in any glory but those who spotted he’d be in charge likely expected as much.
A story of twenty-four shots but only two on target
At the Fosse Way meetup we talked about the fact that Middlesbrough are shy of actual strikers right now. It didn’t seem to hamper them though. Unlike the away side who very clinically had two shots on target and scored them both, we were not clinical in the slightest, even with three strikers put to use. Twenty-four shots but only two on target and three big chances missed? Those stats are rarely going to lend themselves to a positive outcome.
Before falling behind, we’d already wasted a couple of chances to have taken the lead. But we didn’t really trouble Glover (excellent name for a goalie, no?) and it was clear that Maresca would need to make some changes. Tom Cannon was the half-time introduction for Mavididi who’d also looked a little off by his usual standards. An interesting addition to partner up with Daka until we started asking Cannon to do more of a left-wing role. The initial buzz his presence added faded somewhat after that.
The second half began, and ended, with an onslaught to the Middlesbrough half and goal, which makes it all the more frustrating that our first shot on target was actually Jamie Vardy’s goal. He’d been substituted in place of Daka, and after he had already missed a sitter of a goal.
That’s football though and it makes the defeat feel a little harsh but on a different day, we’d have buried a fair few of these chances and we’d be looking at either a good comeback or possibly better. It’s another one for Maresca to learn from and something to remind the players, who are likely already aware, of what’s left to play for. A little bit of extra hunger may be no bad thing.
Right-winger Roulette
There were some pretty audible groans when the fourth official’s board went up to indicate Abdul Fatawu was the one being substituted. He’s one of the players who had fared a little better rating wise. This switch perhaps had more to do with freshness and the way the game was going. Yunus Akgun took his place and sort of played on the right-wing. By the time the full whistle rang out, it was easier to say who hadn’t had a stint on the right-wing.
The spot was occupied by Fatawu, Akgun, Dennis Praet, Kasey McAteer (who replaced Dewsbury-Hall and had somewhat of a torrid outing again in this position) and finally Marc Albrighton. Somewhat of a roulette system for who was going to pick up the ball and try to take a man on. Praet had put some lovely crosses and balls in from this area of the pitch but if we were looking to confuse the opposition by switching who was there so often, it didn’t really work.
It is glaringly obvious that we are incredibly reliant on Fatawu in this position and while it’s great news that we’re looking to lock down the permanent signing of him from Sporting Lisbon, it feels like an area where we do need an actual back-up. McAteer’s future surely lies in the eight role and Marcal hasn’t been deployed here recently in the league, the other obvious choice of Albrighton is surely departing in the summer.
It was in the substitutions and this frequent switching that things felt a bit chaotic and not really planned out. It isn’t the first time that some of Maresca’s substitutions haven’t quite worked out. Cannon and Vardy are the two that made sense, position aside for Cannon.
He’d looked lively and like he wanted a few more high crosses in before we suddenly seemed to stop trying them. The Akgun one is interesting. For all of his energy and movement, his end product is a little lacking. Collectively though, so was everybody today.
Big game syndrome strikes again?
Maybe some wouldn’t count this a big game in the same way as Southampton or Ipswich, but Middlesbrough are gunning for the play-offs and had already had the better of us earlier in the season through a belter of a free-kick. But the Foxes record against bigger teams, or rather teams who play similar passing football to us isn’t great.
The Foxes still have a buffer at the top, albeit it’s been cut to nine points now and Leeds and Southampton do seem to be on course for a very high points tally themselves. It adds some weight to our following fixtures against both of these sides.
While Maresca is doing a brilliant job, it’s perhaps in moments like this where you do look at his experience and whether we have set ourselves up a little naively. In the Italian’s defence, the starting lineup felt pretty spot on. Where it can be questioned more is the fact Middlesbrough hit us twice in the same way, which we seemed slow to learn from, and in the substitutions that were made and how they were asked to deploy themselves.
There’s no need for the booing we saw at half-time, but questioning the tactics and even the frustration being 2-0 down and in how slow it felt was more understandable. Although ironically it did gee up the home crowd who were more supportive and vocal in the second half. It just felt like we were missing a little something today and you can’t win every game, but it adds a little nagging doubt before the rather huge looking away game at Leeds later this week.
