Leicester visited their sister club OH Leuven in a friendly this Saturday, playing 120 minutes as a number of players were on show. A blistering start from the opposition did see Leicester 1-0 behind after just 28 seconds play.
Then the mess continued with an unsettled and probably naiv midfield set up playing Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall and Maddison as a trio, and no real defensive anchor in there.
OH Leuven might be further in their preperations for the new season, but to see Leicester again making foolish mistakes, this time Daniel Iversen, made Leicester 2-0 down after just 12 minutes played.
The fact that this game was a “ultra” session being played over 120 minutes made it clear that changes would be done so that as many players as possible were given a time to shine, but a Leuven side topped to their best made it difficult for Leicester to adapt.
As the game went on Leicester managed to get more and more on top of their performance and when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall found the net with a splended shot from far distance after 51 minutes Leicester looked as if they were adapted.
The players given 60 minutes showed their quality as the game went on and a clever James Maddison pass found Patson Daka as his header made a nice finish and Leicester were level after 59 minutes.
Brendan Rodgers then minutes after pulled of all eleven players and also made a change of formation bringing on a new group and settling in a 3-5-2 system, playing Vardy and Iheanacho on top.
The start for the new group looked more steady as Dennis Preat made lively attempts and giving a good show as others had more struggles. Daniel Amartey made a folish mistake after 91 minutes which did see Leicester again behind, 3-2 to the home team.
Leicester pushed for more and they never gave up and cleary had the advantage going further into those 120 minutes. Jamie Vardy was handed a chance be a defenders mistake as he scored in the 101st minute with a clear and wonderful finish.
A number of changes were done before the last 15 minutes as a few youngsters were given a chance and also Marc Albrighton had to wait on the sub bench as well before he entered in the final quarter of the event. Vardy looked sharp but could not convert more than once with a few other chances seen as possible goal attempts.
To read something out of this game might be that Youri Tielemans just played 45 minutes before being pulled off together with Daniel Amartey, Jannik Vestergaard and Dennis Praet, or it was just substitutions being made to give everyone a game as they four had positions easy to change.
This was we expected just a friendly run out with OH Leuven probably taking it more serious as they played a team close to their regular set up and after 90 minutes finished the game 2-2 after being 2-0 up with some promising play early on.
Leicester will play Hull next as preperations continues and we do believe that Brendan Rodgers will start to sharpen his selection as the season comes closer.
- Positives
- Harvey Barnes again being lively and setting up many chances
- Jamie Vardy, Patson Dake and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall all scoring
- Getting away with a draw after being 2-0 down
- Nice to see Leicester playing Leuven as the two teams continue their travel
- Negatives
- Sloppy defending at times, certain players not being in form
Player Ratings: Iversen 4, Pereira 4, Fofana 4, Evans 4, Justin 5, Dewsbury-Hall 6, Soumare 4, Maddison 5, Barnes 6, Daka 6, Perez 5 Subs: Stolarczyk 5, Castagne 5, Amartey 3, Vestergaard 5, Soyuncu 6, Praet 6, Tielemans 4, Vardy 6, Iheanacho 5, Mendy 5, Thomas 4, Wright, Albrighton, Braybrooke, Choudhury
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Harvey Barnes
Match Stats (H/A):
- Possession: 46 / 53
- Corners: – / –
- Shots on target: 3 / 4
- Fouls: – / –
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