Leicester City 4 v 1 Huddersfield Town
Post Match Analysis by Stuart Dawkins
Maresca’s interviews after the win over Cardiff had touched on the relatively few of changes in line-up over the past few games. With the number of games played over the holiday period and the impending start of the Africa Nations Cup, some change was bound to happen, and the line-up chosen for this New Year’s Day fixture had a few items of interest.
Most noteworthy was a first start for Cannon, together with no recognised striker on the bench. Akgün and Casadei also got starts, replacing Dewsbury-Hall and Ndidi as the attacking midfielders. Justin again played at right back, with the ever-adaptable Pereira playing his roving role from left back.
The other notable things prior to kick-off were a brief appearance of The Birch to wish everyone Happy New Year (as did the clap banners), and the appearance of two static ‘fake players’ in Huddersfield’s pre-match warm-up, tempting comments about whether they might need a couple of extra defenders on the pitch for the match itself.
Once the match had started there were a couple of other things to note, too. For the first twenty minutes or so, City seemed to be playing the ball forwards more quickly than usual – there was some of the patient passing too, but less than the norm. Also, Pereira was appearing in the attacking penalty box or as an overlapping winger far more often than I have seen him before.
Nonetheless, the first half hour had a very familiar feel. The first half-decent chance of the game went to City’s opponents, but it was not taken. City then took control, although without creating that many chances of their own. The first was to Pereira, sent through by one of the long balls. Mavididi probably could have fallen under a challenge in the box but didn’t. Had he done so it looked a decent penalty shout.
Eventually, though, City began to play a more usual version of their possession game, and Huddersfield – in a rigid 5-3-2 formation – held on and threatened little. It was all looking very familiar – even down to the regular background noise of some City fans calling for the ball to be lumped forward sooner.
Eventually, City’s patience paid off, as it has done so often this season. Pereira laid the ball back from an attacking position and debutant Cannon hit a near-perfect shot from the edge of the box which beat the keeper’s dive – one-nil to Leicester at half time.
Another familiar pattern then occurred, with City looking faster and sharper after the break. This time, that sharpness resulted in a goal within about a minute. Justin chipped over a cross from the right and Pereira was the one of the three City players queuing up on the six-yard line and headed it home.
City were comfortably on top, although rather strangely the first corner of the match to either side did not occur until the 55th minute.
After just over an hour, Cannon timed his run onto a through ball perfectly, getting behind the Huddersfield defence, using his strength to push past the one defender who kept up with his pace, then sliding the ball under the ‘keeper to make it three-nil. It was all positively Vardy-esque. As was the statistic flashed up on the big screens shortly afterwards which showed he had scored two goals from just 14 touches of the ball.
It should have been comfortable now. Instead, City became sloppy. Huddersfield nearly scored with a move directly from the re-start. Then, from a corner, there was a scramble in the box and Helik prodded the ball into the roof of the net to make it three-one.
For the first time, Huddersfield began to play as if they might make a match of it, and they were much the better team for about fifteen minutes. They had a couple of corners which ended in free-headers which were off target. They had a couple of shots which Hermansen had to divert with decent saves.
So, it was somewhat against the run of play that City scored their fourth goal. Mavididi was brought down from behind about 23-yards from the goal. He took the free-kick himself. Was it a mis-hit? Did it take a slight deflection from the wall? Was it a brilliant piece of skill? Not sure … but it kept low and bounced ten-yards from the goal. All of which was sufficient to confuse the Huddersfield ‘keeper who could not stop it squeezing inside the near post.
City took over again. Pereira missed a couple of chances that he might well have scored. Albrighton came on for Fatawu, and it was good to see Doyle return from injury to replace Justin. The latter change prompted Pereira to switch to right-back, which meant he pretty much literally did cover every blade of grass during the match.
With a few minutes to go, Mavididi was rested, replaced by Marcal.
The final whistle went for a comfortable 4-1 win. With Ipswich and Southampton only drawing, City’s lead in the Championship extends even further.
To make comprehensive team changes resting a number of key players whilst keeping up such good momentum must be really pleasing for Maresca. They continue to look like a well-drilled, fit team.
A final comment is due for the referee – Sam Allison. Whilst it was not a difficult match to referee, he remained unfussy and assertive throughout, being notably keen to let play flow and to play the advantage. All this just a week after he hit the headlines for being the Premier League’s first black referee for 15 years. On the basis of today’s performance, you could see why he has quickly stepped up from what is his first season refereeing even at Championship level.
Leicester City
Hermansen, Justin, Vestergaard, Faes, Ricardo Pereira, Casadei, Winks, Fatawu, Akgün, Mavididi, Cannon
Substitutes
Coady, Doyle, Albrighton, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall, Maswanhise, Marçal-Madivadua, Stolarczyk, Nelson
Huddersfield Town
Nicholls, Lees, Helik, Nakayama, Kasumu, Wiles, Edmonds-Green, Rudoni, Headley, Thomas, Koroma
Substitutes
Diarra, Hudlin, Chapman, Austerfield, Ayina, Iorpenda, Stone, Falls
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation.