Enzo Maresca in his 2nd pre-season friendly, playing Northampton at The Sixfields under special weather conditions, well presented by John Dunn and Matt Elliott, as they are always enjoyable to listen to.
The team from start had all the new signings in place as well as Jamie Vardy as captain, but still early days and surprisingly starting Jakub Stolarczyk in goal and Manya Marcal-Madividua out wide up front as he kept the Northampton defense busy.
Leicester looked controlled with Harry Winks starting in the middle, together with Ricardo Pereira, but still far from a settled unit, also seeing Dennis Praet and Wout Faes in starting roles.
Jamie Vardy came close early on, but could not convert from his chances, and it was Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who in the 27th minute scored the only goal of the game, with a nice header, after a Timothy Castagne assist from wide.
Leicester also gave start to new loan signing Callum Doyle, as he got 45 minutes before being replaced by Victor Kristiansen. Daniel Iversen was the 2nd sub coming on for Stolarczyk.
Northampton testet Daniel Iversen on a couple of occassions early on 2nd half, Stolarczyk had a few good saves in the first half as he kept a clean sheet. Both goalkeepers looks having a bit of struggle with their footwork and passing as they find it difficult not playing with natural movement regarding goalkeeping.
This shows a direct change as the strict goal distribution on feet at the floor could be risky without having that natural ability to do just that, so we just have to wait and see how this will progress. At times it looked as if that passing in the back is more important than doing a correct pass. No distribution with goal kicks over the midfield area is another special hype.
We could also see a 2nd new hype introduced as a defending player is moved into the midfield area as they get more involved and giving the team an advantage, but still early days as Ricardo Pereira do have a few yards left to become Leicester’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Leicester did struggle in their first pre-season friendly vs. Peterborough, and today did not impress anyone, playing a newly promoted League One side, with a number of trialists introduced, all looking lower in quality than The Posh.
At the hour mark Leicester made a number of substitutions introducing Wilfred Ndidi in an offensive role, coming alone with the goalkeeper and scoring, but sadly being offside. Marc Albrighton also were among the subs doing a good impression, as well as seeing Jannik Vestergaard and Harry Souttar both being in the team together building probably the tallest defensive partnership in Europe.
Patson Daka had his possibilities to score, but at this point, he is not focused and looks like he is far from the player he was when signing for Leicester, more or less out of confidence.
Good to see the team win, but in all fairness this looks far from a finished article and really uncertain about a lot of issues, one being having so many players with first team ambitions not really looking part of future project.
Uncertain about Praet, Faes, Daka, Iheanacho, Justin, Vestergaard, Ndidi, Iversen, Castagne and Albrighton, if they will be around when the season starts, they all look as they have little or no future at this football club, especially after watching Ndidi today, he will probably be out the window soon, being played in a position we have never seen him before.
Harvey Barnes has not yet been involved in pre-season friendlies, said to be injured, but we believe he could be gone by the weekend if the money on the table is enough and acceptable.
- Positives
- Winning
- Getting valuable minutes
- Domination
- Negatives
- Looks uncertain and not enough goals chances playing a League One side
- Too many passes going backwards
- Goalkepers very uncomfortable on floor passing
- Too many players in the squad, cannot see a pattern yet
- Too little penetration and sloppy finishing on chances created
- Domination of 72% possession not resulting in enough goals
Player Ratings: Stolarczyk 6, Castagne 6, Pereira 5, Doyle 4, Faes 4, Winks 6, Dewsbury-Hall 6, Madivadua 6, Vardy 4, Coady 6, Praet 4 Subs: Iversen 5, Kristiansen 5, Albrighton, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Daka, McAteer, Justin, Vestergaard, Souttar, Choudhury
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Kiernan Deswbury-Hall
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 28 / 72
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