Starts given to Conor Coady, Hamza Choudhury and Jamie Vardy, resting Wout Faes, Ricardo Pereira and Kelechi Iheanacho as Leicester took command at Loftus Road for their first visit to London this season.
Queens Park Rangers were 2nd to bottom before the game and a bit desperate as their team and starting eleven looks good on paper, but as Brian Clough said, football is played on grass.
Leicester had possession, but the game waved a bit back and forward as the two teams made had a bit of a battle in the middle of the field, with little or nothing happening in front of goal, not before Stephy Mavididi managed to get a shot on goal with a deflection from a QPR defender and the ball curved over an outplayed Asmir Begovic. Leicester were 1-0 up after 30 minutes.
We thought this would be the ideal scenario getting a goal and see QPR taking more risk, but as they did Leicester were not able to use it to their advantage, being fought back and also a bit sloppy defending and passing from full backs Hamza Choudhury and James Justin did made it a bit problematic.
Conor Coady did not either have a top game as Jannik Vestergaard and Mads Hermansen stood out as the players to trust in the defensive department. But when Andre Dozzell in the 40th minute after massive pressure managed to get the ball into the net with a nice shot from distance. QPR are level and the first half ends 1-1.
2nd half became a bit of a dragged out scenario with Abdul Fatawu being the positive man, often on the run with a good drible and really taking on the opponents defenders and in the 59th minute it became too much as Fatawu was taken down and mixed emotions for goalscorer Dozzel as he got his first yellow for tackling Fatawu and seconds after getting his 2nd for pushing the same man to the floor as that resultet in a red card.
Leicester were suddenly one player more and it was obvious and real fantastic when Harry Winks in the 80th minute getting a perfect touch to his distance shot finding the goal up in the right corner and what a fantastic way to score your first goal for the club, Leicester were 2-1 up.
There were possibilities to get more goals and also Enzo Maresca made his substitutions bringing on Ricardo Pereira, Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho and Kasey McAteer, replacing James Justin, Jamie Vardy, Cesare Casadei and Abdul Fatawu.
Leicester kept it safe, but credit to QPR, fighting well and if they can keep up that type of ethic, they will avoid relegation. The quality of Leicester’s bench makes it a massive weapon, having that luxury of doing changes that makes the team better.
Fantastic to have 13 wins from 14 games, another difficult game having that winning edge, of course also one player more, but still having that quality that brings in the three points.
- Positives
- Harry Winks scoring his first goal with a real cracker
- Getting into the lead and being the positive side away from home
- Fatawu playing his best game for Leicester and the teenager will interesting to watch as he grows
- Bringing home 3 points on a difficult day
- Winning 13 of the first 14 games, massive and surreal
- Negatives
- Sloppy at times, Justin and Choudhury not having the best of games
- Pereira coming on and again getting a yellow
- Cesare Cassadei not able to dominate the midfield area and not taking the role he should in the Leicester team
- Conor Coady looks rusty and needs game time to get into the contention as Wout Faes hopefully is back for the Leeds game
- Letting in a sloppy goal and give away the advantage just minutes after going in front
- Jamie Vardy not really involved at all
- With 79% possession the games should be put to bed with a more convincing goal tally
Player Ratings: Hermansen 6, Justin 5, Coady 5, Vestergaard 7, Choudhury 5, Casadei 5, Winks 7, Dewsbury-Hall 6, Fatawu 8, Vardy 4, Mavididi 7, Subs: Pereira, Albrighton, McAteer, Iheanacho
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Abdul Fatawu
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 21 / 79
- Shots on Target: 3 / 5
- Corners: 1 / 8
- Fouls: 13 / 7
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