Enzo Maresca made a number expected changes for this FA Cup 4th round match vs. Birmingham, also giving young midfielder Brandon Cover his full debut from start.
Surprised to see Hamza Choudhury in the line-up with his ongoing situation. Jamie Vardy was also back in, captaining the team, also starts to Jacub Stolarczyk, Marc Albrighton, Marcal Madivadua, Ben Nelson, Conor Coady, Callum Doyle, Dennis Praet and Yunus Akgun, so pretty much a new team out there today.
Leicester do have massive quality in the squad, and as we did see againt Millwall, you are not falling flat with a great number of changes. The first five minutes made a bit of promise, but from then Birmingham was on the front foot. Brandon Cover showed his talent and eye for a penetrating pass, as he found Jamie Vardy perfectly, but the first touch from Vardy was far from perfect as Birmingham goalkeeper John Ruddy got to the ball first.
Jacub Stolarczyk made a number of massive blunders during the game as he tried to be clever with short passes in front of his own goal. He was also helped by Hamza Choudhury, who looked dizzy and also made a number of defensive blunders during the game.
To Jacub Stolarczyk’s credit, he managed to get himself out of the situations and kept a clean sheet, but again these errors inside your own penalty box, making passes that in the end sees the long ball anyway, makes no sence at all when you do not have the time to keep it steady.
But it was Jacub Stolarczyk (23) who kept Leicester in the game first half also making a number of good saves, with Birmingham creating a lot of chances but luckily not able to convert.
Enzo Maresca made three changes at the break, bringing on Kasey McAteer for Marcal Madivadu, James Justin for Callum Doyle, as well taking off Brendan Cover and replacing him with Riccardo Pereira, but again feel it was a good debut for the 20 year old Jamaica full international.
The changes in it self gave a good ignition, but it was the two grand old men, Marc Albrighton and Jamie Vardy who had the main part when Leicester scored a wonderfull first goal after 47 minutes. A great cross from Albrighton found Vardy inside the penalty area, as the captain himself scored with a well placed header.
Leicester from this point on had the control and never looked back, as they took advantage of all the missed Birmingham chances. Jamie Vardy left the field after 67 minutes, probably having that as a target with his fresh return to action. Tom Cannon had a positive impact when coming on and of course great to see him on the field being involved in a lot.
It all fired again after 72 minutes, when Tom Cannon was fighting for the ball and it ended up with Yunus Akgun as he fired of a missile not in sight of the Birmingam goalkeeper. Leicester were 2-0 up and suddenly looked solid as rocks.
A new debutant came on in the 81st minute as Enzo Maresca decided to give Arjan Raikhy (21) his first minutes in the senior side. The former West Brom and Aston Villa celebrated with the other players when Leicester scored their 3rd goal in the 88th minute, a nice finish from Dennis Praet.
This was a very solid 2nd half performance. 1st half was a bit of the opposite. Leicester are now through to the 5th round of the FA Cup.
- Positives
- Scoring three beautiful goals
- Jakub Stolarczyk showing great potential, but still a young man in development
- Keep a fighting spirit and despite defensive errors managing to bring the game to bed
- 2nd half performance shows the gap between the two teams in quality
- Jamie Vardy scoring
- Marc Albrighton is a man with a perfect pass, and hopefully used more in the league games coming
- Brandon Cover’s penetration pass to Jamie Vardy, we like to see more of the youngster
- Debut to Arjan Raikhy, always nice to see a new debutant
- Ben Nelson is one to watch, he is a man to count
- Enzo Maresca making moves after first half that certainly worked well
- Negatives
- Hamza Choudhury in the line-up, for the obvious reason
- Giving too much away and handing Birmingham too many oppertunities
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall not in the matchday squad
Player Ratings: Stolarczyk 7, Coady 6, Nelson 7, Doyle 5, Cover 6, Choudhury 5, Praet 6, Yunus 6, Madivadua 5, Vardy 6, Albrighton 6, Subs: McAteer 6, Justin 6, Pereira 7, Cannon, Raikhy
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Jakub Stolarczyk
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 56 / 44
- Shots on Target: 4 / 6
- Corners: 5 / 8
- Fouls: 19 / 11
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