Marti Cifuentes again made changes to his team. He seems to have no clue what his best team is. Caleb Okoli played in the right back position. This gave Luke Thomas a different role. However, it still looked very much a 4-3-3 set up.
There were a number of positives to take from the game. However, grit, determination, passing quality, movement and patterns looks far from ideal.
Oliver Skipp has shown glimpses of promise in certain games. He was back today and made a good impression. Harry Winks also had a good game, they kept a solid grounding in that midfield area. They made enough movement to keep Boro’s midfielders quiet. That is something to build on.
Playing Julian Carranza from the start, along with Jordan Ayew, creates a very strange setup up front. Both players worked as much as they could. However, they did not produce any type of threat in front of goal.
Ben Nelson and Jannik Vestergaard both looked good together, and having Caleb Okoli also in their, made it more solid defensively. This made it possible for Luke Thomas to get higher in the field, which he did, making a few good crosses close to goal.
Caleb Okoli and Abdul Fatawu came close from those crosses, but not able to score.
Forced to settle for a point.#LEIMID | @bcgame pic.twitter.com/ajj5eFDVMV
— Leicester City (@LCFC) November 4, 2025
Then on the brink of half time, Leicester are awarded a penalty after a handball situation. Jordan Ayew steps forward. His shot is perfectly placed in the right corner. Leicester are 1-0 up. What a great feeling.
In the second half it looked solid and safe. Asmir Begovic came on for a an injured Jacub Stolarczyk. He made a brilliant save from a massive Middlesbrough chance.
Middlesbrough were also down to 10 men late on. Alfie Jones was sent off after a clash with Patson Daka. This stopped a clear goal chance for the Zambian international.
We all thought Leicester would have managed to keep their lead. However, Boro’ fought until the end. As we entered that last minute of stoppage time, a long curl in found Luke Ayling inside the penalty area. He managed to get the ball into the net.
Middlesbrough more or less deserved their goal. They pushed Leicester hard for the last 45 minutes. In the end, a 1-1 draw was a fair result. It was hard for Leicester to again lose points not holding out towards the end.
- Positives
- Caleb Okoli as a right back, having three tough defenders in the back looked a good solution
- Oliver Skipp and Harry Winks looking like a solid partnership, hopefully it continues
- Luke Thomas and Ben Nelson doing well and having good performances
- Jordan Ayew scoring with a well placed penalty
- Sold work from Asmir Begovic
- Negatives
- Julian Carranza is no player for this set up, at least as long as he has no idea what pockets he should go into, stumbling and missing his targets
- Random changes all the time, who knows what will come next
- Losing two points in the last seconds, being one man more on the field, lack of leadership
- Jacub Stolarczyk injured
- Ball possession was a joke, this is so far from Marti Cifuentes goal and approach you can get
- Too many yellow cards in areas you do not need to give away these type of fouls
Line Up:
Stolarczyk 6, Okoli 6, Thomas 6, Vestergaard 6, Nelson 6, Winks 6, Skipp 6, Carranza 3, Fatawu 5, Ayew 5, James 5 Subs: Begovic 6, De Cordova-Reid, Mavididi, Daka, Choudhury
- Leicester City, Man of the Match
- Harry Winks
Match Stats (H/A)
- Possession: 37 / 63
- Shots on Target: 2 / 4
- Corners: 3 / 6
- Fouls: 18 / 11
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