Sunday July 12th 7pm Sky Pick
Preview by Paul Weston
The match on Sunday at the Vitality Stadium between Bournemouth and the Foxes is already eagerly awaited by City fans but with some trepidation. Nothing is certain when you are a City fan and, although Bournemouth’s form recently has been fairly awful until the draw against Spurs on Thursday night, the Foxes have always found Bournemouth a difficult opponent. I am sure this match will be no different even though all the pundits seem to think City will win comfortably and push Bournemouth closer to relegation.
City’s form has started to pick up after dropping points against Watford, Brighton and Everton. The mid-week draw against Arsenal was well deserved. Although Soyuncu and Evans had a torrid time in the first half, the second half performance was much better.
There was more pace and movement and which made light of the absence of Maddison and Chilwell. Bennett has slotted in well and it was good to see Fuchs playing a part. Justin was good in a wing back position. Up front Vardy and Iheanacho were a constant threat.
LCFC, having lost third place in the league to Chelsea, really need three points with Man Utd only a point behind. Unfortunately both Chelsea and Man Utd have hit good form at the same time and, being somewhat pessimistic, it is starting to look like the last match of the season against Man Utd could determine whether City end up fourth or fifth. Fifth place of course will be enough for a Champions League spot as long as Man City do not win their appeal. I understand a decision might be known next week- so fingers crossed!
Both team selections are likely to be affected by injury. At the time of writing Wilson and King are back for Bournemouth but Smith was badly injured against Spurs and looks certain to be out. Maddison and Chilwell have not recovered from injury so it will be interesting if Rodgers selects three at the back again with five across the middle.
At times against Arsenal it worked well but there were also times when we needed desperate defence and excellent saves from Schmeichel to keep out Arsenal. Bournemouth, as with Arsenal, also have a fast moving forward line but I feel that if City press hard and get down the flanks against their defence, then our mobile attack, with perhaps Barnes coming on as sub, could be too good for Bournemouth.
I will be on the edge of my seat on Sunday wearing all my LCFC clothes and scarf willing them to victory. Let’s cheer them on to a much needed win!
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