City 2 Bristol City 1
As the cliché would have it, the sign of a successful team is winning games when not playing well. Leicester are currently playing well most of the time, but in the second half today they were poor, but they won nonetheless.
The ticket pricing policy worked well, with well over 28,000 watching on a cold, misty Friday night – very few of them from Bristol City.
Oakley was preferred, again, for Abe. Otherwise it was the current “First XI” for City. Ricardo made his home debut; Naughton, Bamba, Mee and Van Aanholt formed the defence; Vassell, King, Oakley, Wellens and Gallagher the midfield, with Yakubu up front. Bristol City set up in a similar formation, and all was set for a traditional “blues versus reds” match.
City should have been ahead within two minutes, a quick break from defence to attack led to a cross from Naughton. Yakubu met it, unmarked, about 10 yards out and uncharacteristically blazed his shot over the bar.
Bristol City, to their credit, came to play football. It was noticeable that their strikers pressed forward whenever Ricardo had the ball, and their central midfielders closed their men quickly when City were in possession. They had done their homework on City’s new, fluid, passing style and for much of this match their homework paid off.
Leicester were the more creative team. In their current crop of form, their passing is more than a match for any team in the Championship. After 18 minutes, Gallaher hit a trade-mark 20 yard shot after cutting in from the left, but it was well saved by David James in the Bristol goal….
Two minutes later, Leicester took a corner from the left, Bamba headed goal-wards but it was well saved. Somehow, Bamba then managed to chase the rebound to the edge of the goal area, to do a little trick to beat his defender, then put in a decent close range shot which James did well to parry. The parry, however, left Yakubu with a near-open goal from 6 yards, and he duly scored. Bamba’s performance in the goal was exceptional, and seemed to be even more so when the tannoy wrongly announced that he, not Yakubu, had also scored the goal. 1-0 to Leicester, and an air of confidence exuded from the players and the home crowd.
Bristol kept trying to play football, but City were better. It was like watching Sven-era Leicester play against Sousa-era Leicester: both teams trying to pass and move and break quickly, but only one succeeding with any consistency.
At this point I risked a small witticism. I said it was a little like watching Barcelona play Arsenal a few days before; with Leicester in the Barcelona role: passing well, looking better than the opposition, going 1-0 up and playing relaxed, comfortable football. Of course, Barcelona went on to lose that “comfortable” match 2-1.
Both sides created a small number of chances: James denying King well in a one-on-one, Bamba (him again!) making a last ditch clearance after Bristol broke quickly down the right wing, Ricardo also smothering a one-on-one chance. It did, however, have a little of the feel of a training match for Leicester.
The second half kicked off, with City attacking the Kop end. City were awful. It is surprisingly common for the shape of matches to change at half time, but Leicester went from the crisp, accurate passing and moving, the (fairly) poor-man’s Barcelona of the first half, to … well to missing simple passes, to making rushed clearances and to losing tackles in midfield. Pretty much the whole team was effected, even Bamba horribly screwed one clearance.
After 12 minutes of the half, Bristol deservedly equalised, Elliott getting a free header from a left wing corner, which a City defender could only head upwards and backwards into his own goal.
A flurry of substitutions followed. Bristol replaced the ineffectual Keough with Maynard, and the injured McAllister with Nyatanga. For Leicester, Dyer replaced Gallagher.
Bristol were now the better team, but lacked any composure in front of goal. Ricardo has yet to win over the Leicester faithful. His dropping the ball at the end of one period of Bristol pressure did not help. He also dropped a cross later in the game, although he did seem to be fouled for that one but no free kick was given.
Bristol now played as though they thought they could win the game. One consequence of this was that Leicester had the chance to break quickly on a number of occasions as Bristol pushed forward. From one of these, Oakley and Dyer ended up two-on-one with David James on the edge of the Bristol penalty area. Somehow, given how the half was progressing, it was no surprise when the two City players managed to get into each other’s way before Oakley shot tamely straight at the keeper.
Each side make a further substitution, with Campbell-Ryce replacing Clarkson for Bristol, and Abe replacing Wellens for Leicester. Most of the rest of the half consisted of Bristol pressure, but with no real striking threat, and Leicester getting the occasional fast breaks from defence, creating half-chances. Of the two teams, Bristol looked the more likely winners and my Barcelona/Arsenal quip looked like it might be unfortunately accurate.
In the 84th minute, Waghorn replaced Vassell. Bristol were finding so much space in midfield that on two occasions, Waghorn had to chase back to make vital defensive tackles deep in his own half. One new Leicester tactic was, however, revealed, with Ricardo taking free kicks from very advanced positions, once even inside the Bristol half.
The long-ish injury to McAllister before he was substituted meant that there were five minutes of added time. Ricardo took another Leicester free kick, from just short of the half-way line on the right. The Bristol defence did its job, a defender put his boot through the ball to clear it upfield. But, it did not go upfield, instead it hit the backside of a City player, looped up and behind the line of defenders. The busy Waghorn was the first to react and hit a bullet shot into the net from 12 yards. It was a great finish from a flukey deflection. Still, 2-1 to City, with 92 minutes played and another three points had been won.
I have to admit, I felt quite sorry for Bristol. As with Sheffield United a few weeks ago, and as with Leicester so many times in the season of their relegation to League One – they did everything just about right, but they could not score, and then they lost. Thankfully, the Sven influence, the Thai money and the players’ confidence means that Leicester are not like that now.
The positives for Leicester? Three points and, to be fair, a decent performance in the first half and a tenacious one when playing badly in the second half. Bamba looks more and more like the buy of the season, Yakubu keeps scoring, and the back four look well-settled now.
The less-positives? Whatever it was that led to the second half performance, I hope it was not a touch of complacency. The central midfield were not at their best. Wellens was unusually quiet, and Oakley – having played himself back into the first team with a string of decent appearances as substitute – did not have a good game. The jury is still very much out on Ricardo although, to be fair, he has had very few real saves to make so far.
Leicester: Ricardo, Naughton, Bamba, Mee, Van Aanholt, Wellens (Abe 78), Oakley, King, Vassell (Waghorn 84), Yakubu, Gallagher (Dyer 64).Subs Not Used: Weale, Miguel Vitor, Bruma, Berner.
Bristol City: James, McAllister (Nyatanga 64), Caulker, Fontaine, Carey, Woolford, Cisse, Clarkson (Campbell-Ryce 76), Elliott, Adomah, Keogh (Maynard 59).Subs Not Used: Gerken, Stewart, Johnson, Pitman.
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