As we would like Brendan Rodgers to play his team in a settled system, we just have to accept that this man will surprise you week in and week out, and if he gets the results he did today, then all credit to him, and playing his best eleven and group them the way he did, made it a perfect day on a football pitch if you are a Leicester City fan.
Embed from Getty ImagesWe knew that Sheffield United would be a “banana skin” but looking at the team from start it was really one that looked strong and playing Evans, Soyuncu and Fofana together and not leave any of these three quality players on the bench is a choice of either follow a system of four in the back or make a gamble and against the bottom team of the league it worked fantastic.
First half was a bit of a transport, and also players getting used to the system, as forwards must act in a different way, and especially Jamie Vardy is actually trying to find a bit of a new role playing alongside Kelechi Iheanacho up front, as the two must find their way, and against Sheffield United it all clicked fantastically, as we could see when Vardy found Kelechi in a wonderful attack that gave Leicester the 1-0 lead in the 39th minute.
Going out second half Leicester had to make a change with Ricardo Pereira picking up an injury and then giving Marc Albrighton a new 45 minutes and he never let anyone down, bringing something else to the table with his flank performance a bit different than you will get from the Portuguese.
Embed from Getty ImagesJamie Vardy missed a few chances as he could have given Leicester a more comfortable lead, but instead it was Ayoze Perez who scored from wide distance with a fantastic goal and the game was in real over as the 2-0 lead made it every hope of a point gone for The Blades.
Leicester just pushed on and when Kelechi Iheanacho just decided to take everything in his own hands and making the most out of his day with two more goals, both brilliant finishes and fantastic hits, and suddenly Leicester were 4-0 up.
Embed from Getty ImagesJamie Vardy had a great game giving assists to Kelechi and his close shot in the 80th minute deflected by Ampadu made the day complete as Leicester could go of the field with a fantastic 5-0 win and three more points in the bag, just fantastic to watch.
Just after the fifth goal it was another memorable moment with the second ever South African to play in league football for the club, seeing Khanya Leshabela replacing Ayoze Perez, settling into the midfield as the result was secured and great to see him on the field after a number of times being named as a sub. The first South African to play for Leicester City was a goalkeeper named Aubrey Mandy, making his debut and playing three league games back in the 1929/30 season, ironically his last league game was a 1-7 loss to Sheffield United.
Leicester are now second in the table and hopefully the ride will continue and with also the FA Cup quarter final game against Man Utd coming up, it’s a lot of fun hopefully to look forward to.
- Positives
- Brendan Rodgers hitting bulls eye with his game plan
- The partnership between Vardy and Kelechi could be a blistering one
- Great to see how well the three men defence with Fofana, Evans and Soyuncu worked
- Ndidi and Tielemans keeping a two men midfield the way they did
- Marc Albrighton’s second half, superb
- Negatives:
- Pereira injury
- Player Ratings: Schmeichel 6, Castagne 6, Soyuncu 7, Evans 6, Fofana 7, Tielemans 7, Ndidi 7, Iheanacho 9, Vardy 8, Pereira 6, Perez 7 Subs: Albrighton 7, Leshabela
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Kelechi Iheanacho
Match Stats (H/A):
- Possession: 72 / 28
- Corners: 9 / 1
- Shots on target: 10 / 0
- Fouls: 10 / 9
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