Leicester City 0 Hull City 1: A knife to the heart, a spoon over the bar, a fork in the road
Leicester City have lost for the first time this season. This was always going to happen, but should still spark some debate about changes that can help smooth the path to Enzo’s way.
In his short time so far as Leicester City manager, Enzo Maresca hasn’t been afraid to make tough decisions. The time has come to make one of the tougher ones, and start to ramp up a Leicester team which finds itself at a crossroads.
A team of two halves
Here’s fair warning that some of what follows might sound kneejerk and reactionary given we’ve just lost for the first time this season.
But while it’s totally understandable for Maresca to play down expectations and prepare fans for the inevitability of defeat, we can still try to push the team in the direction we want to pursue.
Because this game showcased the two different teams we can choose to be this season, even within the constraints of Maresca’s “idea”.
We can choose the boring, safe, frustrating option, which we saw in the first half.
The one that involves playing Wilfred Ndidi in an attacking midfield role not because he’s suited to the position or fits the system but because he’s Wilfred Ndidi. The one that saw us create next to nothing because there was such little pace and ability to beat a man. The one that went in at the break 1-0 down after Liam Delap punished Callum Doyle’s first off-day to slice his way through our defences.
Or we can pick the exciting, dangerous, energising option, which we saw in the second half.
It wasn’t perfect and we didn’t get the goals we needed, mainly because Hull were the most well-organised team we’ve played so far by a distance, but we saw the dynamism we’ll need on a more consistent basis.
This was embodied primarily by Abdul Fatawu and Cesare Casadei.
Abdul impact
We already knew Fatawu would be a wildcard of a winger who would shoot repeatedly from 35 yards out. His pre-signing YouTube compilation included a shot from 70 yards out, perhaps the greatest sign of an impending cult hero since that clip of Hossein Kaebi’s karate kick on Cristiano Ronaldo.
After one particularly rash decision, Harry Winks told Fatawu to calm down and keep playing the Enzo way. He responded moments later when receiving a long ball from Jannik Vestergaard by considering a short pass inside for all of 0.2 seconds before instead flying past his marker on the outside and winning a corner.
Maresca has a choice now. He can use Fatawu’s clear rawness and tendency to spoon shots wildly over the bar as an excuse not to pick him - or he can recognise this unpredictability is what the team badly needs.
After all, we can have the best of both worlds. We can play the way Maresca wants while injecting pace and directness into the final third of the pitch. And the way to do it is to start trusting players like Casadei and Fatawu earlier.
Maresca is the kind of manager who will do this, as evidenced by his quadruple change at Tranmere, his triple change here and the way he dropped Wanya Marcal for the trip to Rotherham. Hopefully he recognises not only that the team needs it but, almost equally importantly, the fans need it.
Our home crowd, which was such an asset during the great escape and title run-in, has to be utilised again. It should be one of our main strengths. There are small pockets of consistent noise and support but it’s been a long time since we’ve felt like the plucky underdogs in need of a boost from the get-go.
Frankly, the majority are waiting to be entertained and rewarded. The slow possession-based approach we’ve seen so far isn’t conducive to this, but teams like Manchester City and Brighton that use this style know when to inject pace into their play.
In the first half, there were numerous times we could have found Yunus Akgün in space on his first start for the club but chose the safe option instead. Kasey McAteer’s threat on the left was the sole positive before the break.
The changes helped and Fatawu became a potential crowd favourite almost immediately by cutting inside and firing a shot against the inside of the post. He really was millimetres away from becoming an instant hero. It was the kind of moment you want so desperately to rewind and tweak marginally. And it was so far removed from what we’d seen up to that point that it roused the entire home support.
Three minutes?!!?!??!
Fatawu’s impact was one of two main talking points after this game, the other being the utterly ludicrous decision to add just three minutes of injury time at the end. There were multiple substitutions and several instances of Hull players timewasting.
It was a reminder we’ll have to get used to the fact that officiating at this level is, like the football itself, being carried out by lesser individuals with far less scrutiny into their every decision. And there’s nothing we can do about it.
Given we’ve become accustomed to six minutes or more as a matter of course, to see the number three raised into the air by the sideline felt like some kind of technical fault.
If we’d had that extra few minutes, who knows if we’d have found the equaliser. The pressure had certainly been building throughout the second half. Casadei has already become a huge factor in the closing stages of games, providing both reliable buildup play and, when driving into the box, a disruptive attacking presence.
Even if Maresca thinks Fatawu is too raw, Casadei is the obvious starting point to begin picking players who will make the most of the patient possession earlier in games.
It’s not just Ndidi who must sharpen up in this regard. We need to be honest about Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall too, a player who should be standing out at this level but whose touch is letting him down far too often. If we had more fit and available options in that attacking midfield position, his place would be under serious threat.
Despite losing top spot, there were ample reminders elsewhere that none of the other favourites will have it all their own way this season either. Sunderland crushed Southampton 5-0, Norwich somehow lost at Rotherham and Leeds were held to a goalless draw at home by Sheffield Wednesday.
We were never going to win every game. But our extended pre-season is now well and truly over. After the international break, it’s time to get ruthless.
