Exciting to see Leicester back in action as they prepare for their next campaign coming up against Brentford in a few weeks. Notts County came visiting for the first pre-season fixture and a bit surprised to see the line-up and setting.
We did see a number of first team players involved and of course the highlight of the game was Harvey Barnes and him scoring the first goal after a brilliant assist from Patson Daka.
Notts County from the National League is a team not to underrate and that might have been what Brendan Rodgers had done as he just played one regular first team player in second half, changing all players and just not really adding any momentum to the team.
Notts County came back late in the first half with a goal from Kairo Mitchell after again Leicester being soft on set pieces this time from a corner ending up in the feet of the former Leicester player who is also born and bread in this city.
Callum Wright had a major chance to score but his attempt hit the post. He was lively and could have been given more minutes as his presence shows that he has been in great form on loan at Cheltenham.
Going into the 2nd half it was not really easy to see what type of approach Brendan Rodgers had as he switched he just put on a new team, with the only first team player among them being Kelechi Iheanacho.
This made Notts County the better outfit as they clearly took command and dominated at times without Leicester being able to keep them quiet and in the 78th minute their new signing from MK Dons Aden Baldwin scored.
Leicester came back to try to get something out of it, but it never ended in goal with one major and good attempt from Kelechi Iheanacho hitting the post and went wide. Their goalkeeper Slam Slocumbe (34) had a good day at the office and managed to show a steady appearance as he cleared every attempt from Leicester.
Notts County had a more settled team and looked as a stronger unit, but all in all it was just an exercise and strangely not really prepared as a football game from Brendan Rodgers as he just neglected every aspect of the result, and cleary must have seen that the weaker unit he presented second half would struggle.
In football and against lower team opposition you need to show them were they are and especially at such a fantastic place as Seagrave you should never ever leave out results as they still are the most important or else you could just drop the game.
Playing Daka and Barnes for more minutes today could have easily settled a result for Leicester, to keep Pereira and Choudhury on for more minutes would also have seen a Leicester team capable of bringing this game to bed, which would have build confidence for everyone. Now you did not get one single answer as the performance was not good enough to win against a fifth tier team.
Despite a bad start to the pre-season campaign, no answers and a group of players just getting a few minutes in their legs it was really nothing to build from.
Leicester will now go to France for more pre-season training and next week hopefully play with a bit more grit and settlement as a possible first team appearance will be on vs. OH Loeven.
- Positives
- Harvey Barnes scoring a good goal
- Hamza Choudhury making the most out of his first half display
- Stolarczyk showing his class at a couple of Notts County attempts
- Players coming through the game without any knocks
- Watching a few new young players in action
- Negatives
- The result, difficult to accept to see such a poor display at home at this fantastic football arena
- Brendan Rodgers not able to coach his team to a win by balancing his eleven better
- KDH showing no type of penetration or skills as he took no command
Player Ratings: Iversen 5, Pereira 5, Fofana 6, Wilson-Brown 4, Flynn 6, Dewsbury-Hall 4, Choudhury 6, Soumare 4, Barnes 7, Daka 5, Wright 6, Subs: Stolarczyk 6, Wormleighton 4, Appiah (trialist) 5, Hill (trialist) 4, Hughes 6, Leshabela 5, Madivadua 5, Cover 5, Fitzhugh 4, Maswanhise 5, Iheanacho 5
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Harvey Barnes
Match Stats (H/A):
- Possession: 53 / 46
- Corners: 5 / 10
- Shots on target: 3 / 5
- Fouls: 9 / 8
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