City U21 – 1 Liverpool U21 – 1
Match Report by Ian Bason
On the day that would have been Bill Shankly’s 100th birthday, it seemed appropriate that the 2,000+ fans at the King Power Stadium got the chance to see how our current U21 crop faired against the visitors from Anfield.
Having suffered a 5-1 drubbing against Chelsea last time out, it was hoped a more even contest would be witnessed against the current Premiership leaders.
Although the official site stated we played a 4-2-3-1 formation, in the the early exchanges it looked more like a 4-5-1 formation to me, with Hopper up front and Michael Cain appearing to be playing the most advanced of the midfielders.
The first 10 minutes were spent sounding each other out, with Teixeira quickly identified as the Liverpool player most likely to make things happen, and while Knockaert had plenty of the ball, he also managed to achieve 2 rollicking’s from the bench, firstly for not tracking back, and then for hanging onto the ball rather than making an early cross.
However Knockaert also created the best early chance, playing through Cain, who fired in a cross which left winger Smiljanic just failed to reach. Then Logan’s clearance put through Knockaert again on a good run, spoilt by a poor cross. As City’s momentum was maintained, a move involving Cain and Smiljanic, ended with Knockaert putting just over the bar.
In the 21st minute, Logan nearly put the side in trouble with a poor kick, but was rescued by an excellent bit of defending by Bakayogo, who interestingly was playing centre half all evening.
The game was fairly even for a spell without a clear cut chance until the 36th minute when Logan saved with his feet from a Peterson shot. A couple on minutes, the referee played an excellent advantage when Hopper was fouled and Panayiotou put his shot just wide.
So half time and 0 – 0 if anything City had shaded and much of the half time talk around me was speculating how much time Sesay (who was captain) had been spending on the training ground with Wes Morgan, as the way Sesay was using his strength to both shield the ball and win challenges looked very familiar.
City kicked off the second half with one substitution, Dodoo on for Smiljanic on the left, while Knockaert had switched to playing as the sole striker with Hooper wide right, so the plan was obviously not to play high long balls.
Liverpool were the first to show a real threat when Dunn hit the post on the 47th minute with Logan beaten at full stretch, but then Leicester grabbed the lead in the 52nd minute, and the credit for the goal should go to Harry Panayiotou.
Watson had just reached the touchline to take a throw in, when Panayiotou spotted space behind the full back and made a great run into the space to receive the throw, then ran forward and executed a good cross for Hopper to head home, 1- 0.
However Watson was then involved in the next key moment giving away a soft free kick on the edge of the penalty area. Teixeira took the free kick bending it over the wall and beating Logan low down on his near side, I thought Logan could have done better. 1-1.
Teixeira then tested Logan again in the 65th minute, but Logan was up to the task and saved to concede a corner. Liverpool were dominating the game at this point and Logan made another good save with his legs from another Jack Dunn effort in the 71st minute.
Brannagan replaced Peterson for Liverpool and nearly had an instant impact, with Logan saving again, then Rossiter put another effort over the bar with Liverpool still on top.
Following about a 5 minute wait, Paratore replaced Knockaert, with Hopper returning to the striker position and Panayiotou moving wide right leaving Paratore in centre midfield, within a couple of minutes Paratore had his first shot which was well wide.
However in the 85th minute, Dodoo (who had struggled to get into the game) was put through by Hopper and struck the post with an excellent strike. The final push saw a quick free kick leading to a good Watson cross which was cleared for a corner, and although Cain took a good corner, no one got on the end of it.
Full time, and overall a draw seemed a fair result. What did we learn in terms of future first eleven starts ? The comments from his former manager at Tranmere that defending wasn’t Bakayogo’s strong point did not appear to be the case, as he had a solid game defensively bar a couple of poor bits of distribution.
The most tipped player to break through currently is Michael Cain, and while there were indications of a future quality player, with the arrival of Dean Hammond, I wonder if a loan spell to a lower league club would be the best next stage of his development.
Knockaert had plenty of the ball, but his end product didn’t shout out that a starting place should be instantly granted, so on the night the stand out player was Alie Sesay.
One final word, praise for referee Simon Barrow, who used the advantage rule very effectively, while bringing the play back a couple of times when a move quickly broke down. Can I suggest a video of his efforts should be sent to a certain Mr Deadman.
City: Logan, Watson, Sesay, Bakayogo, Elder, Cain, McCourt, Knockaert (Paratore 83), Panayiotou, Smiljanic (Dodoo 46), Hopper. Unused subs: Ngoma, Smith, Daniels.
Goals: Hopper 52
Liverpool: Ward, Sama, Jones, Kelly (c), McLaughlin, Lussey, Rossiter, Peterson (Brannagan 75), Dunn, Teixeira, Morgan. Unused subs: Maguire, Mersin, Baio.
Goals: Teixeira 54
Attendance: 2,046
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