Willie ever play any attackers: LCFC Women 0 Arsenal 4 (06 November 2022)
A tumultuous week for Leicester ended in a demoralising beating against Arsenal where any chance of a surprise result evaporated inside the first twenty minutes.
New manager Willie Kirk was in the dugout at the King Power for the first time, just days after organising a successful coup against Lydia Bedford from the Director of Football’s chair. If this was him laying out his managerial blueprint, there must be some concerned Quislings in the Leicester boardroom.
Sacrificial lambs
There is no disgrace in losing to Arsenal, a team awash with internationals who have been hammering teams left and right in the Champions League this season. But this was comfortably Leicester’s worst display of the season, one where they effectively waved the white flag before kick-off.
Kirk made three changes from the team that collapsed in injury time at Reading last weekend. In so doing, he shredded the organisation and style laid out by Bedford in favour of all-out defence. The three players who came in – CJ Bott, Abbie McManus, and Demi Vance – are all defenders, which created an absurd team featuring eight defenders, with captain Aileen Whelan the lone attack-minded midfielder, and then Natasha Flint up front.
Perhaps this was a sign that Kirk is going to be a much more pragmatic manager over the rest of the season. But Leicester’s problems haven’t been in defence: they’ve been solid in every game and only been beaten heavily once, against Manchester City when they were still in it with half an hour to go. The issue has been an utter lack of attacking threat, which Kirk’s changes only made worse against Arsenal.
Under Bedford, Leicester did reasonably well at winning the ball to create transitions or getting into decent areas on the counter-attack. The final ball or decision was badly lacking, but the system worked to some extent – they don’t have the players to go toe-to-toe with most teams in the league, but they have had a chance in tight games to nick it. They just failed to do so, for a variety of reasons that never felt like the manager’s fault.
That was not the case at all against Arsenal. Leicester routinely failed to build up through midfield because there weren’t any midfielders. Bott and McManus are defenders whose first instinct is to turn back, while the wing backs were entirely focused on defending. The one chance of real note came when Whelan got the ball in space and played a lovely ball out to Bott, who broke through the Arsenal line out of nowhere, only for her to transform back into a defender as she bore down on goal.
The issue with this kind of set up is that as soon as the first goal went in, it felt like the game was over. Given it took 13 minutes for that to arrive, that left an awful long time for things to get worse. By half time, the Leicester bench – featuring Emile Heskey in some sort of pitch side advisory role – looked at a loss over what to do.
Not at the Levell
Nor did Kirk’s tactical tweak have any impact on Leicester’s ability to keep shots out at the other end. None of his three changes was the one that really needed to be made. While it’s harsh to pick out individuals in a team that is losing every week, the truth is that Kirstie Levell has had an awful start to the season and her mistakes are mounting up.
Against Everton, her error turned a point into a loss with the last touch of the game. Against Reading last week, Leicester conceded the 90th minute equaliser direct from a corner that went in over Levell at the near post. On Sunday, with Arsenal targeting an obvious weakness, they conceded straight from a corner again. Levell was also at fault for the second goal, where she missed a routine ball to allow Caitlin Foord an open goal at the back post. For the first, she pushed a cross straight out into the middle of the penalty area for Frida Maanum to score the rebound.
Like Danny Ward for the men earlier in the season, Levell also looks bereft of confidence. Brendan Rodgers was vindicated in sticking with Ward, but Levell is skittish in general play and looks so vulnerable from set pieces that it feels like Kirk is going to have to pull the trigger.
In a team that relies on fine margins, it’s not sustainable to have a goalkeeper so out of form. Demi Lambourne may or may not be the answer - she is back fit again but played in the Conti Cup team that conceded four to Liverpool last week – while Sophia Poor was on the bench earlier in the season and is an England U17 international but is surely too young to be thrown in at the deep end just yet. Either way, it’s clear that something needs to change.
A moral victory for the last 48 minutes
The fact Leicester kept this to a relatively respectable 4-0 defeat having been three down at half time reflects well on their character and mentality. After Stina Blackstenius went round Levell to make it four within a couple of minutes of the restart, this could have got seriously out of hand.
Goal difference may well be critical in a tight relegation battle and so restricting the damage here was important. Beth Mead had a glorious chance to score a fifth, and Arsenal created a few other chances, but the game petering out was a win of sorts for Leicester (and we need to take those where we can get them). Missy Goodwin even forced Manuela Zinsberger into a save at one point with a decent hit from outside the area.
It was a pretty dispiriting game to finish a disappointing week, though. The managerial change felt botched and dirty, from the way an army of men in the senior leadership team binned off the female manager and her assistant to take charge themselves, to the club making Bedford take the pre-game press conference only to sack her two hours later.
As a result of all his backroom machinations, Kirk has managed to land himself the job permanently. Which doesn’t exactly scream ‘exhaustive search for the best candidate’. His first act was to dispense with the good things Bedford had done and to sacrifice this game without much of a fight.
Leicester’s season won’t be decided by games against Arsenal and they remain just three points from safety. But Kirk has a lot to do to convince anyone that he is the right man for this job and the early signs weren’t promising. A trip to West Ham in a fortnight represents the latest massive game, where Leicester really have to start picking up points to give themselves a chance.
Around the WSL
The Hammers took part in the game of the season at home to Brighton on Sunday. A mad 4-5 defeat to the Seagulls, who have somehow contrived to concede 23 goals in six games yet put together two wins despite it all.
Leicester’s main relegation rivals both lost. Liverpool fell to a 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa thanks to a Rachel Daly penalty, while Reading were comfortably beaten by Manchester City after Emma Mukundi pulled off the lesser-spotted trick of scoring two own goals in the same game.
In the biggest game of the week, champions Chelsea beat Manchester United, who hadn’t conceded a goal all season, 3-1. The WSL is off for a week now for some international fun and games, where England continue their World Cup preparations by playing Japan and Norway.
