Plymouth Argyle 1 Leicester City 0
Home Park, Plymouth, 12th April 2024
Post Match Analysis by Colin Murrant
Despite City’s lethargic performance at Millwall on Tuesday, they arrived at Plymouth on Friday night knowing that a win would give them another chance to ramp up the pressure on Leeds and Ipswich. Incredibly the three leading Championship teams all failed to score mid-week, having scored 239 goals between them previously this season. Alas for City, it was another match of dominance, but yet another loss.
What was different from the Millwall fixture was that City created ample chances to have won this match, but the finishing was poor, the tempo was better than Tuesday night but ultimately the passing is too often sideways or backwards. This is the Enzo way, personally I have never bought into it even when we were winning, as it doesn’t excite. But now that even poor teams can defend against the system of play, and hit City on the break, it is clear that there is no second plan: Plan B is to shuffle the players but otherwise continue as Plan A.
City started brightly and created several chances in the first 20 minutes, following a Daka strike that was disallowed for offside, Fatawu and Ricardo had opportunities to score. Then the counterattack, City lost possession, perhaps unluckily, in their own half, and Forshaw put Bundu away on City’s right flank. Faes didn’t do enough to close the Argyle wide man down and, from the corner of the box, he placed it between Faes and Vestergaard into the far corner of the goal. So many times, we have witnessed City concede goals through the opposition exploiting the space left by the inverted full back.
City never really got going again in the first half, and a noticeable number of fans booed them off at halftime as the City players walked off in the corner of the stadium adjacent to where the travelling support was. Hermansen tried to rally the fans but received equal amounts of cheers and boos.
Indeed, as the game moved on in the second half, there was a sense of acceptability that City would not score, The away support, usually so good, seemed to peter out, as the home crowd became more confident of a win and noise intensity increased considerably.
Not that City didn’t create more chances, Daka missed two of the best of them. First of all missing a sitter as a Fatawu cross was met at the near post, and then completely messing up a volley at the far post following a ball from Praet. Daka was immediately replaced by Vardy, receiving more boos and abuse as he left the field. I often feel Daka is a victim of the style of play, but he has missed several good chances recently. With teams defending deep against City, there is not much space behind for the likes of Daka and Vardy to exploit. There can be no doubt that Daka is lacking confidence, and the jeering will not help him.
Other chances fell to Praet, Mavididi and, most noticeably Vardy who failed to meet a good from Mavididi at the far post.
Faes was another victim of fan’s anger as his wasteful passing and not infrequent ability to lose the ball, annoyed the supporters. There now seems to be an increasing frustration with the supporter base over the style of play. Whilst it was acceptable when City were winning, it is now not so as even poor teams can play against it; in a nutshell it has not evolved. Added to that, the feeling amongst some people that certain players are not giving all for the cause, and the relationship between the fans and players is not as rosy as it was.
City now have three remaining home games and one away. Automatic promotion is still in their hands but requires a marked improvement: the thought of the team going into the play-offs after squandering a 17 point lead is unpalatable.
Teams
Plymouth Argyle: Cooper, Pleguezuelo, Scarr, Galloway, Mumba, Forshaw (Houghton), Randell, Miller (Edwards), Whittaker, Bundu (Gibson), Hardie (Waine). Unused Subs: Wright, Devine, Phillips, Issaka,
Leicester City: Hermansen, Ricardo, Vestergaard, Justin, Winks, Ndidi (Praet), Fatawu, Dewsbury-Hall, Mavididi, Daka (Vardy). Unused Subs: Coady, Doyle, Choudhury, Cannon, Akgun, Stolarczyk, Nelson.
Referee: Jones Attendance 16861
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.