LEICESTER CITY 1 MANCHESTER CITY 1
Manchester City win penalty shootout 3-1
Match Report by Paul Weston
To the great dismay of many fans before the match Puel’s team selection never looked like a serious attempt to go to toe to toe with Manchester City and take advantage of a great opportunity to go to the Carabao Cup semi-finals. Instead it seemed like a defensive set up with little hope of creating much in attack.
The fact that Vardy was not even on the bench although apparently rested, not injured, made no sense at all so we were left with the ineffective Iheanacho up front whose confidence is at its lowest ebb and who seems to have no understanding at all of the offside rule.
Fuchs came in for the injured Chilwell and Iborra accompanied Ndidi in midfield. Ghezzal and Gray were on the wings. Simpson, Fuchs, Maguire and Soyuncu with Ward were yet another defensive combination selected by Puel. The match inevitably progressed as we thought it would.
As usual, with too many changes from the last match, City players were over-cautious, uncertain of their team mates and did not move into space. Instead, the fairly pointless sideways and passing back (and frankly boring) Puel style of play was the theme whilst Manchester City players strolled around with crisp passing and movement. Whenever City broke forward Iheanacho displayed his ability of either mis-controlling the ball, not tacking or being caught offside and Manchester City started yet another attacking move.
It was so predictable that it was only a matter of time before Manchester City scored as De Bruyne shot low into Ward’s right-hand corner. This seemed to catch everyone by surprise – including our goalkeeper.
Shortly afterwards Gray had a run and shot which was turned away. This was I think our only attacking move in the first half which ended 1-0 to Manchester City and should have been more.
It is not a surprise that with so many changes at each match that City’s first half performances are poor and improve in the second half after re-grouping and further instructions. All too often Puel was seen on the side lines waving his arms in frustration as the players either did not understand (or were ignoring?) his instructions.
Manchester City seemed content to treat the second half as an exhibition match but City started to bite into tackles more and looked like they wanted to actually win the game. Choudhury in particular gave his all and Fuchs kept a tight rein on Mahrez. However, our woeful attacking line up was creating little until Albrighton was brought on a substitute for Iborra.
Immediately Albrighton got stuck in, as only he can, and this seemed to spark other players into life. All of a sudden Manchester City were rattled out of their composure. A pass by Ndidi bisected Manchester’s defence and Albrighton controlled the ball well before belting it past the keeper to make it 1-1.
The last fifteen minutes of the game were the most exciting of the match as both teams tried to win it. Choudhury made two last ditch tackles on Jesus that saved certain goals whilst City huffed and puffed. By this time Iheanacho had been taken off to jeers from the crowd but inserting Gray to spearhead the attack did not work and only showed the weakness in our squad for all to see.
Somehow the match ended 1-1 and progressed to a penalty shootout. After the penalty shoot out in the last Cup match we thought we were in with a chance. How wrong we were!
Maguire scored at the Kop end with his first penalty. Manchester City scored. Then Fuchs, usually so dependable, blazed his kick over. Stirling then tried an over-confident party trick and his chip drifted over the bar to give City an unexpected second chance. 1-1 on penalties.
Then it all unravelled. Both Maddison and Soyoncu both tried stuttering start penalties which failed abysmally and were saved by the keeper, whilst Manchester City score theirs with ease. And so the match ended with yet another penalty shoot out defeat to Manchester City and another chance of Cup success having slipped away.
It feels like the rest of our season is now in limbo. We are toothless in attack without Vardy and we create few chances. The Puel possession-based style of play works only if the players quickly move into space to create chances but not if the move is only backwards and sideways. Possession only works if the players know each other well and not if there are constant changes to the team for every match.
The next few matches ahead give little hope of winning more points and, especially after the poor performance against Palace, we could soon be close to the relegation zone in the New Year. We have a talented group of players but something is just not right at the moment. I hope I am proved wrong.
Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to all City fans!
Leicester: Ward, Simpson, Soyuncu, Maguire (c), Fuchs, Ghezzal, Choudhury, Iborra, Ndidi, Gray, Iheanacho. Subs: Morgan, Maddison (s 53'), Albrighton (s 61'), Ricardo Pereira (s 81'), Jakupovic, Okazaki, Mendy
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