Danny Ward and the hunt for the golden glove: West Ham United 0 Leicester City 2 (12 November 2022)
Leicester City made the trip to London in search of signing off for the World Cup and Christmas on a positive note.
Brendan Rodgers had one enforced change after James Justin’s horrendous luck ruled him out for the season, Luke Thomas stepping in to deputise. Otherwise, it was the same side who got a 2-0 victory away at Everton.
Harvey Barnes notched the second goal to seal Leicester’s win away at West Ham and summarised it excellently post match by saying "myself and the team have both hit some good form at the right time, but the wrong time for the break".
We won't be the only team feeling frustrated to be taking the next month and a bit off due to the World Cup after finally coming into a run of form. The Foxes will head into the break in twelfth place, notwithstanding the Brighton v Aston Villa result. Not bad considering how grim it was all looking not too long ago.
Despite being an invaluable win, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. An early change seemed to temporarily unbalance us and the home side were certainly better in the opening period of the second half, but the resilience that the Foxes showed and a few moments of beautiful football secured the win.
Brendan Rodgers’ blue and white army
It was the chant ringing out from the away end as the titular man came over after his players to punch the air and celebrate a hard fought away win. Following our debate last week of whether we are fully backing him now, the mood was certainly leaning towards yes. After another win, it seems in short that the relationship is healed. At least for the next six weeks anyway. Call it stubborn or keeping the faith, Rodgers has stuck by his side and in return, they’ve done the same.
Danny Ward picked up the Man of the Match award for Leicester, having pulled off one particularly good save and this victory making it five clean sheets from the last six in the Premier League. He’s a perfect example of Rodgers keeping the faith. Many of us were calling for Ward to be dropped not that long ago after some incredibly nervous and poor displays. Add one Wout Faes to the mix, a new set piece coach and a generally more stable looking team and Ward looks as good as ever, currently boasting the most clean sheets in the league. Wales can thank us for sending him off to Qatar in good form!
Rodgers likely took away the same key notes as many fans from this game and the last couple - we’re still short of a player in one or two areas. It was a matter of mild concern that our only two actual full-backs were both on the pitch yesterday. Fingers crossed that Ricardo will be back in the New Year, and if he is, Castagne is then available to cover left-back if needed, but we look short. With news that there are funds available in January, the order of priority is surely a left-back (or another player like Castagne and Justin who can play both sides), and another centre-back. Faes is going to be an absolute mainstay of the side and Amartey was very solid again but with just Jonny Evans on the bench, another centre-back would be wonderful.
We’re still without an outright right-winger too but it’s unclear if that’ll be a priority given the recent experimentations playing Dennis Praet, Kelechi Iheanacho and Ayoze Perez there to varying degrees of success, we may be able to make do.
Ayoze Perez and impact substitutions
Can we have credit where credit is due for Ayoze Perez? He’s often been the whipping boy when things have gone poorly, or when he starts, but he’s on an excellent run of being a perfect impact substitute. Perez was part of a triple change for the Foxes, Jamie Vardy coming on for Daka and Nampalys Mendy on for Boubakary Soumare, who’d been very good again. The change not only offered fresh legs - all three are energetic players who like to hassle the opposition and change the pace. Perez in particular impressed me, with boundless amounts of energy and determination to attack the ball and turn towards goal.
That work paid off too. Perez’s assist for Barnes was inch perfect and just an absolute pleasure to see. He was fully aware of Barnes making the run, where to put the ball and how to weight the through pass. Barnes still had to finish, but Perez made it as easy as possible for him. The type of combination you can watch on repeat and still make noises of impressed admiration each time.
Perez’s time at the club so far remains a bit of a paradox. Few would argue that he’s better starting than coming off the bench, but he can play in various positions, is always willing to do so and is an incredibly hard worker. The Spaniard’s got one year left on his current contract and it’s tough to guess if we’ll extend that. Some of it may come down to if he is willing to play in a reduced, impact substitute role or not.
Injuries and ‘injuries’
This final weekend before the World Cup was always going to make for an interesting one in the Premier League. Given the amount of bad luck and late injuries flying around, you can forgive players clutching plane tickets to Qatar for being nervous at this final game and shying away from the more physical side.
With the exception of Nampalys Mendy, every Foxes player heading off on international duty started at West Ham. There was a momentary heart in mouth moment as James Maddison went down midway through the first half. Then he started to look okay and based on the post-match comments from Maddison and Rodgers, it seemed like this was very much an agreed, cautious move.
Maddison’s contribution to the game may have been brief but he grabbed the opening goal after some smart work from Patson Daka and looked destined to continue causing the Irons more pain.
The only argument against it being a planned move is that Dennis Praet, who came on for him, didn’t seem particularly ready. Losing Maddison knocked us out of the game for a while, offering West Ham some respite and seeing the balance of possession and chances shift. Adjusting seemed to be slightly tougher than normal.
We had a similar incident in the second half when Youri Tielemans was substituted for Wilfred Ndidi. That was 100% about giving him a break ahead of the World Cup, but it didn’t seem to help us for a few minutes. We’re fortunate that West Ham looked so flat and uninspired. You can’t help but feel a better team would have capitalised on our display in the early stages of the second half. We weathered the fairly tame storm though and losing our best two players didn’t cost us.
Harvey for England?
There were more than a few people leaving the London Stadium pondering if Harvey hadn’t done enough for a late inclusion into the England side. It’s a shame that Gareth Southgate’s most stacked part of the squad is in the forward line and that his tendency to lean on the players who have served him previously as opposed to current form.
It isn’t just Leicester fans that have been questioning the same thing on social media. Quite who you’d push out to accommodate him is a different question but on my train journey home, the consensus from some friendly QPR, Arsenal and West Ham fans seemed to be Marcus Rashford or Jack Grealish.
Selfishly, Rodgers is probably pleased that Barnes will be one of the few who will be staying at home and enjoying some rest between training and preparing for the second half of the season. While the break is less than ideal from a momentum point of view, with our relatively small squad, it’s good to offer the likes of Barnes, Dewsbury-Hall and co a rest and for somebody like Ricardo, six weeks for him to continue his rehabilitation while not missing games.
Enjoy having this Leicester back while we can
It’s great to go into this long break on a high but what the future holds is unclear. There’s a long time and a lot of games involving a lot of our key players between now and returning to the King Power to face Newcastle on Boxing Day.
James Maddison didn’t need a World Cup call-up to increase the amount of clubs putting him on their January shopping list, but it can’t hurt his stock either and although we managed to hold on to Youri over the summer, will a club finally stump up our asking price if he can be a leading figure for Belgium over the next six weeks?
Come early January, things could look very different. For now, it’s just nice to feel like this is a Leicester we know and like.
