Leicester 1, Burton Albion 2, Positives and Negatives, Player Ratings and Match Report, League One Fixture

Embed from Getty Images

Admir Bristric made his first start for Leicester, and Olabade Aluko played in defense since Jayden Joseph was unavailable. While the lineup was decent, it wasn’t the strongest Leicester could put out, yet it should still be enough to win against Burton Albion.

Russell Martin’s stubbornness is evident in his tiki-taka style of play at the back, which doesn’t suit the players Leicester currently has. After 5 minutes, Leicester makes several poor decisions, allowing Burton forward Matthew Dennis to score easily. The visitors lead 1-0, giving a packed King Power Stadium a terrible start.

Leicester are trying to play the ball around, but in some way they had it difficult making those penetration passes and having the movement needed to build up an attacking project that works well.

Burton defended well with a team full of physical players, getting another gift from Leicester in the 25th minute, again breaking a move from Leicester as the ball finds the net from a good Kgagelo Chauke finish. Leicester are 0-2 down after 25 minutes. This must be a shock for Russell Martin who has put trust in a group of players that looked as they were not ready to perform.

Then in the 29th minute, there was another big negative happening. Oliver Skipp received a red card after a late tackle, but he doesn’t seem to be sharp. This showed that Leicester would have a tough time today, especially being down 0-2 at that point.

A defeat at home for 10-man City.#LEIBAL | @BCGame pic.twitter.com/pVwZAoywWC
— Leicester City (@LCFC) August 22, 2026

Leicester were dominant in the field play, but they lack the creativity in the front line to play that type of football, also having struggles to be able to play out from the back. Russell Martin decided to make a quick change, taking of Liam Cullen, bringing on Hamza Choudhury to stablilise the midfield area.

The change to 10 men uqualied out the possession a bit more, and it opened space that made it possible to create something. Then in the 42nd minute Will Alves made the pass, going via Admir Bristric finding Wes Burns out wide, who scored with a nice finish. This was the perfect time for a goal and it made the game open again.

Coming out second half we had hope for more to happen, despite being down to 10 men, Leicester were the absolute better team, but a strange move from Russell Martin, taking off the three forwards, Burns, Alves and Bristric and putting on Howell, Watson and De Cordova-Reid. This happened as early as the 55th minute and far from what we had thought would happen.

The players coming on, especially Harry Howell, made a good impression. Why all three were taken off is not to understand, but Leicester fought well second half, Burton Albion defending their lead.

The Brewers made it clear they wanted to defend their three points and one goal lead, instead of getting tempted to go forward and challenge for a third goal.

Leicester had a lot of pressure towards the end, but no goals and horror start at home this season, losing three vital points and looking very fragile on the ball in certain situations. This is clearly going to be a difficult season. Ipswich up next in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

Positives

Wes Burns scoring his first goal for Leicester
Admir Bristric in his first start for Leicester, being positive and working hard
The way the team played with 10 men, showing will to fight
Will Alves played well, and could have won the game for Leicester, but was shockingly taken off

Negatives

Defensive play in the first half, terrible decisions and verdicts from certain individuals
Taking off all attackers after 55 minutes, not having any hope on them getting another goal, scoring that first goal just minutes before, all three being involved
Russell Martin looks to have little or no plan in place for this team, everything looks a bit random
Alex McCarthy in goal again, not really convinced he is a good solution
Letting in two shocking goals, heavy dissappointment for a full packed King Power
This team lacks energy and players looks uncertain of their jobs, messy might be the correct word for it

Line Up:
McCarthy 5, Aluko 5, Okoli 5, Souttar 4, Thomas 4, Braybrooke 4, Cullen 2, Skipp 3, Bristric 5, Alves 6, Burns 6, Subs: Choudhury 5, Howell, Watson, Reid, Page