Another day, another team, being surprised to see Ricardo Pereiria in the studio before the game, instead of leading the team out for this very important game at home to Queens Park Rangers.
Many questions asked when Hamza Choudhury was the chosen captain, surely others should be doing this with the recent off field incident regarding the midfielder.
The manager surprisingly again chose to play without Conor Coady as he together with Jannik Vestergaard against Bournemouth showed great solidity, instead a player with little or no routine was chosen, based on good performances, but still just 19 years old, it looked a very bold decision to make.
QPR manager Marti Cifuentes is on a good run with QPR at the moment, and he has a pragmatic approach to football, setting points and survivial in front of playing style and long term ideas, and today he was rewarded, being able to switch his team from possession to counter attacking based on the opponent in play.
Leicester had the ball, but never upset Asmir Begovic much, as they seldom managed to penetrate a team laying low and having their defensive plan well established. Then out of nothing after 38 minutes Morocco international Ilias Chair was played through and he scored on an open goal, with Leicester being surprised and out of balance.
Leicester were 1-0 down in a half they owned, but still no real plan to break down QPR in different ways as route one looks a bit predictable at times, and not being able to get Patson Daka into the game as he works hard, but still not being integrated the way we feel a striker should.
Enzo Maresca made an early substitution as Dennis Praet was replaced with Yunus Akgun, with the Belgian being injured after just 16 minutes. To the defence of the Turkish international he is being played out of position and does a job based on his abilities.
Leicester came out second half with just one aim, to get a goal and keep the pressure, but instead Sinclair Armstrong, with his first touch on the ball, brilliantly anticipated a half-cleared free-kick to shoot low into the net. QPR were 2-0 up after 57 minutes, as the nightmare continued for Leicester.
Ben Nelson managed to score just 3 minutes later with a nice touch from inside the penalty box, and still time to sort out a result, but it was not to be as QPR defended themselves as lions and could have scored more on a number of counter attacks with Leicester pushing forward and opening up in the back.
Leicester will go to Sunderland on Tuesday, hopefully getting some sort of result, a new defeat will of course be problematic as the team and manager have thrown away a massive amount of points on errors and faults that will surely be addressed.
- Positives
- Dominating the game completely, this being a positive as it will hopefully result in goals going forward
- Ben Nelson scoring a nice goal and being the best Leicester player
- Negatives
- Not able to have a plan B, just going route 1 all the time, shooting and having a player up front that can upset the defenders, why not try Harry Souttar as an alternative towards the end, he scores a great number of goals from headers for Australia
- Hamza Choudhury being chosen as captain, others are at this point better suited. Harry Winks or Wout Faes should have been chosen today, to avoid upsetting fans and also exposing the player himself more than needed at this point
- Marc Albrighton left on the bench again, an ideal player to open defences when having possession, Tom Cannon is not a flank alternative, using just three subs in a game when we are crying for changes
- Enzo Maresca to be questioned heavily on his decission making regarding his game plan, substitutions and not play with more attacking players, and a different system, pushing harder with two on top as well as having wingers, playing three in the back and push even harder for goals
- Yunus Akgun being played as a midfielder again, surely not giving answers, Will Alves as well as Arjan Raikhy must be chosen for the bench, when leaving out Kelechi Iheanacho you can surely also drop Yunus Akgun
- Hamza Choudhury being yellowed, almost getting a red for another offense, being lucky not to be send off
Player Ratings: Hermansen 5, Choudhury 4, Nelson 6, Faes 5, Justin 4, Praet, Winks 5, Dewsbury-Hall 5, Mavididi 5, Fatawu 6, Daka 4 Subs: Akgun 3, Vardy, Cannon
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Ben Nelson
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 74 / 26
- Shots on Target: 18 / 3
- Corners: 9 / 0
- Fouls: 7 / 11
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