LEICESTER CITY 0 CARDIFF CITY 1
Report by Paul Weston
It is rare that our beloved City plays well over the Christmas period. And so we found ourselves entering a dip in form against the top team in the division who had just lost at home to Peterborough- just what we did not need. However there was the opportunity to close the widening gap with Cardiff and get our home form back on track after throwing away points against Barnsley.
Pearson kept the faith with Vardy, keeping the fit again Waghorn on the bench, and with no changes even though the Millwall performance had been pretty average. The Cardiff team looked very strong with Bellamy a real threat.
City, as they often do, started really well with slick inter-passing, and within the first 25 minutes created many chances and should have been at least two goals up with Cardiff defence creaking and Marshall in goal coming to the rescue frequently.
Nugent had a good shot saved. Marshall tipped over from Wes Morgan’s header and King hit the post. Knockaert had two long range shots saved. Vardy hit the top of the bar with a glancing header.
Cardiff then scored from their first real but incisive attack down the right. The defence was pulled out of position and Bellamy unerringly found the bottom corner from just outside the box. This rocked City for a while and Bellamy could easily have scored again when Schmeichel for once came for a cross and missed his punch.
0-1 at half time and we were feeling fairly hard done by. I think the stats said that we had had 17 shots by then to Cardiff’s four shots.
Unfortunately the second half followed a different pattern altogether. Cardiff then had worked out. City became over-run in midfield. King and Knockaert were pushed off ball all too easily and Drinkwater having to pass back most of the time. Dyer was having one of those days where he looks like a Division One player. Cardiff deliberately then left it to Whitbread or Morgan to launch long balls which was easy for the tall Cardiff defence.
City seemed to run out of ideas a long way before the end of the match and the match petered out. Although Nugent had a header cleared off the line City ran out of ideas and looked increasingly vulnerable on the break and Cardiff won fairly comfortably.
There is no doubt that the match substitutions were the biggest talking point. Waghorn came on for the injured Vardy. He made a big difference although his touch was not as good as usual.
Lingard and Marshall came on for Knockhaert and Dyer. Nigel Pearson said after the match that he needed “fresh legs”. However, it certainly backfired on City because there was no tactical change. As a consequence this played into Cardiffs hands and they gained a stranglehold over the game.
Lingard in particular looked out of place and I am afraid this weakened the team. The match was crying out for Futacs to ruffle the defence of Cardiff and try plan B if we were being out-thought and out-fought in midfield which continued to the end even with the substitutions.
So the match ended in utter frustration. Cardiff looked only a solid side, but with Bellamy Premiership class and an easy “out ball” for them. We are at the crossroads of the season and, whilst we still are just in the top six, we look like dropping out fairly shortly with two tough away games coming up. On current form we will lose both.
The season could slip away if we are not careful and Nigel has some hard thinking to do over his Christmas dinner on personnel and tactics. The opposition have worked us out now, particularly at home, and we have become a soft touch on our travels. Perhaps it is time for playing different tactics away with one up front perhaps and stiffening midfield in the January transfer window. We will keep the faith- but after yesterday it is asking a bit much!
Leicester: Schmeichel, Konchesky, Morgan, Whitbread, De Laet, Dyer (Lingard 68), King, Drinkwater, Knockaert (Marshall 68), Nugent, Vardy (Waghorn 51). Subs not used: Logan, James, Moore, Futacs
Cardiff: Marshall, Taylor, Hudson, Turner, Connolly, Kim (Cowie 55), Whittingham, Mutch (Gunnarsson 76), Conway, Bellamy, Helguson (Gestede 51) Subs not used: Lewis, McNaughton, Noone, Mason
Attendance: 25,055 Referee: Graham Salisbury
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