No fireworks for Foxes at Sixfields as Leicester’s young stars wait to impress
On a foggy Bonfire Night at a sparsely-populated Sixfields Stadium, anyone expecting fireworks from Leicester City’s talented young attackers had to settle instead for the explosions of colour in the sky.
It was a helpful evening for Northampton Town as they aim to swiftly move on from a damaging FA Cup defeat to non-league neighbours Kettering last weekend. Ravaged by injuries and fielding several youngsters themselves, the Cobblers nonetheless put together a 3-0 victory that will aid their own narrative.
In a formation that mirrored the first team setup, Leicester fielded Olabade Aluko in the hybrid full-back/winger role on the left with Joe Wormleighton shuffling over from the right in possession to form a three-man back line with Tom Wilson-Brown and captain Harvey Godsmark-Ford. Behind them, goalkeeper Stevie Bausor. In front, midfielders Henry Cartwright and Oli Ewing with Jayden Joseph on the right wing. Kian Pennant started up front. But most eyes were on the two attacking midfielders, Michael Golding and Will Alves.
Every performance carries a little extra pressure for both, but for very different reasons. Golding is one of several young players across the country who moved clubs for eye-opening fees during a summer of manoeuvring to meet financial regulations. As such, a question mark hovers about whether he will prove to be worth the £5million outlay - an unfair consequence of terrible rules and clubs scrambling to do whatever they can to avoid a points deduction.
Alves, meanwhile, is the hotly-tipped local lad who fans are desperate to see succeed. Set back a year by a disgraceful on-pitch assault, he’s now plotting a new path to a career at the top. Alves is a unicorn of a player in a sense, with the close control and dribbling skills of an elite attacker but without the directness usually associated. He weaves patterns, turning this way and that constantly while holding onto the ball far longer than anyone else.
Putting these two together presents both opportunities and problems. Leicester still appear to be working out Golding’s best position. He has played in a slightly more attacking role than he often did in Chelsea’s academy and while there is space for both in this formation, the route to a first team place currently looks like a battle with Alves rather than a co-operative challenge.
At Sixfields, there was a glimpse of the other challenge they face. If you don’t force your way into the first-team reckoning soon enough, younger future stars start looking like they might overtake you. And at the moment, if you had to drop a player from Leicester’s youth setup into the first team squad it might not be Golding or Alves. It might, implausible as it sounds, be a fifteen or sixteen year old.
There were only 1,018 fans at Sixfields, including an away end of 89. That speaks volumes about the lure of the EFL Trophy for supporters of both lower league clubs and their Premier League adversaries. It’s hardly a Tuesday night trek. But then this is a competition for teams that are set up to promote individuals rather than to compete as a collective.
The low attendance also meant an unusual event when an opposition substitution drew bigger cheers than any for the home team. 16-year-old Jake Evans has been the talk of his home town of Northampton for some time and his introduction for Leicester on the hour drew a warm reception.
He was brought on alongside the even younger Jeremy Monga, who doesn’t turn 16 until next July. They took up their positions pushed well up the pitch on either touchline and duly didn’t see the ball for ten minutes as Leicester struggled to advance.
By the time either gained possession, Northampton had added to the lead they gained through TJ Eyoma’s 30th-minute header from a corner. The second came from one of the Cobblers’ own prospects, 17-year-old striker Neo Dobson, who would later add the third to record his first two senior goals.
Dobson would have opened the scoring himself but for a tremendous low reflex save by Bausor in the 16th minute. Within seconds, Leicester had lost the ball in their own half and were relieved when Jack Sowerby unfathomably squared it instead of rolling into an empty net.
At the other end, there were few real opportunities. Joseph’s pace caused some problems but Pennant was unable to get on the end of a couple of low crosses. In reality, Leicester looked more like a set of individuals rather than a team and this is no criticism of the individuals involved.
For one thing, there remains reservations about this hybrid winger setup. It doesn’t look like the right balance at first team level and didn’t here either. It would be easy to blame the quality of individual players. But the parallels with the first team’s struggles to create good chances against a full complement of opponents while remaining solid at the back was stark.
As a Leicester fan, the excitement came from the way Monga and Evans surged past their markers with ease and started to create the chances that had been lacking for the first 70 minutes or so. There was also promise from the other two substitutes, striker Josh King and midfielder Louis Page. They had little time to make an impact but still made Leicester look more of a danger. There was sadly no outing for new Northampton signing Martyn Waghorn, now at the other end of his career after bursting onto the scene as a Fox.
Leicester’s final EFL Trophy outing of the season takes them to Meadow Lane next Tuesday to face Notts County.
