Rotherham United 1 Leicester City 2: Get on the bandwagon and pick up the handbook
The New York Stadium was the latest setting for Enzo’s Eleven to rack up another victory. Again, they weren’t at their best. Again, they found a way - as Jamie Barnard reports.
The Wetherspoons website tells me that ‘The Bluecoat’ pub, Rotherham, was originally used as a charity school - named after the blue school uniform worn by pupils. On this August Saturday afternoon, with volatile weather that has you switching between rain jacket and t-shirt, there are blue coats aplenty as Leicester City fans descend en masse for a pre-match pint.
On approach to the front door, the bouncer, who’s just had a stream of blokes breeze past him like Ryan Bennett trying to defend at Tottenham away, decides it’s full and we’ll be the first ones not permitted entry. We walk away, ponder our next step, and come up with a plan to try and enter via the beer garden at the rear.
Five minutes later, we’re at the bar, three deep and jostling for position to get our pre-match pint. Today it’s all about finding a way.
Clocking off
2:50pm and we’re in New York. Okay, we’re not in New York City we’re in Rov’rum. In the curiously named ‘Aesseal New York Stadium’. It’s not clear why that’s the name of the stadium but then it strikes me across the course of an afternoon in Rotherham that it feels like a place, and a club, searching for an identity. Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ blares as the pre kick-off anthem, there’s a furry bear mascot carrying a drum and the stadium announcer proclaims them to be ‘The Pride of South Yorkshire’ - shoot for the moon, hey Rotherham?!
10 minutes into the match and it’s clear how this one will be shaping up. Rotherham, with the human battering ram Jordan Hugill upfront, will be chucking it forward with relative urgency. Leicester will be devoted proponents of Marescaball, calculated and patient.
Callum Doyle is showing he can excel at both the rough and the smooth and in the opening minutes he defends the back post with aplomb. Kasey McAteer, in for Wanya Marcal-Madivadua on the right wing, looks tidy. Stephy Mavididi on the other side looks a threat when the ball’s shifted out to him.
I’ve put my hand up to write the match report for The Fosse Way and it’s just over 10 minutes into the game when I realise there’s no scoreboard showing the time played. By the traditional method of assuming we kicked off dead on 3pm and comparing to the time, it’s just over 10 minutes into the match when Cafu - no, not that one - whips in a wickedly dangerous corner and Hugill has risen to head home. Both I, with my time keeping, and Leicester City, with our defending of this aerial threat, will need to find a way today.
Sticking to the plan
One of the benefits of being back in The Championship is no VAR. A goal is a goal, unless the referee blows or the linesman has his flag up. Fortunately for us, the linesman thinks he’s spotted a foul and the referee rules out Rotherham’s goal. It lights the touch paper of injustice in the home stands and cries of big club bias.
I wouldn’t say the disallowed goal jolted Leicester to life. The thing about this Maresca side is that they remain remarkably consistent. Drawing, winning or losing, under the cosh or on top: the plan is the plan and they will keep executing on it. While looking sharp in possession, Leicester hadn’t really created any big chances.
At 3:12pm, aka the 12th minute, Kelechi Iheanacho turns smartly and stands up a ball to the back post. Like a man sneaking into the back of a Wetherspoons, Kasey McAteer is there to head home from close range. “Straight back up, straight back up, Leicester City”. McAteer has looked far more prepared to attack his man than Marcal-Madivadua was against Cardiff and, with decent technique and a bit of pace, he’ll present a valuable option for Maresca regardless of who arrives this transfer window.
For the next 20 minutes, Leicester look the bigger threat. Mavididi forces a last ditch block, McAteer flashes a shot just wide, Ndidi strikes high and wide with one of those where you think “no, don’t shoot Wilf” and he does, and Ricardo forces a save from range. It looks like if we can find a second we’ll win convincingly. Rotherham offer comparatively little besides Cafu’s dangerous corners and a moment where he forgets he’s not that Cafu and tries to catch Hermansen out at his near post with a feeble free kick.
Just before half-time, the big chance comes. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who’s been untidy in possession and struggled to get into the game, strides through the middle of the pitch as Leicester counter attack. He chooses Mavididi to his left who trickles a ball goalwards and the chance to sit very comfortably at the halfway mark dissipates.
The second half brings a different Rotherham. They’re still direct but they’re attacking down the wings more. Rather than feeding off Hugill’s scraps, they’re flashing crosses across our box and really asking questions of Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard. In the 53rd minute, Fred Onyedinma gets his head on one to direct the ball into the far post. 1-1.
Leaving it late
It’s anyone’s game now and the away end is subdued. Wilfred Ndidi becomes unreliable in possession and Iheanacho is struggling to have an impact up top. The 59th minute calls for the GOAT in place of Kelechi. We go through the tedious routine of the opposition fans completely unoriginally ribbing his wife and our fans reminding them that he’s won more trophies than their entire club. Cesare Casadei replaces Ndidi.
Leicester once again start to ask more questions as we enter the final 20 minutes. At times it feels like Vardy is a casualty of the new style. He hangs on the last line of Rotherham’s defence and when opportunities arise to play him through, his team mate inevitably takes the safer option of a team mate in closer proximity. It looks set for him to bundle home as the ball is pulled back to him on the edge of the six yard box but a great block by the Rotherham defender denies him.
This Leicester City side keep finding a way, though. In the 84th minute it’s a moment of quality that again proves the difference. Firstly, Doyle plays an inch-perfect pass across the box to McAteer. It’s so close to being cut out by the defender that McAteer looks surprised to find the ball at his feet. It looks like the chance of an attempt at goal has gone with a slightly wayward first touch but he adjusts and, like a prime Riyad Mahrez, whips a left footed strike into the back of the net. “Straight back up, straight back up, Leicester City”.
We shift to 5-4-1 to see the game through. Casadei - who twists and turns and shows a bit of quality - moves into a central role and we’re treated to James Justin on the wing in the next instalment of trying to decipher the quite clearly superior tactical mind of Enzo Maresca. But even if the formation has changed, the philosophy has not. Leicester keep the ball with ruthless authority. Rotherham are a beaten team and Leicester toy with them, side to side with the ball recycled rhythmically.
The full-time whistle brings celebrations with a tinge of relief. It’s 5 from 5 for Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City. We’re top of the league and unbeaten but it still feels like we’re yet to really get going. Our quality is seeing us through right now and we keep finding a way to win. All eyes on the transfer window in the hope there’s no one crucial sneaking out of the back door and no Rotherham bouncer saying “we’re full” when Maresca inevitably wants to add a couple more attacking options.
