Analysis from Leicester City’s 2-1 defeat to Fulham, looking at the attacking transfers required, James Justin’s performance, Stephy Mavididi, and Steve Cooper’s away record
Chasing the game with 20 minutes to play, leading the line for Leicester City was a striker who has averaged one goal every 12 games over the past four seasons and an attacking midfielder who is, by trade, a defensive midfielder.
It didn’t inspire confidence among the supporters at Craven Cottage, nor was it a combination that gave Fulham much trouble. City had one half-chance in the final quarter of the match, Wilfred Ndidi stabbing a shot through the bodies into Bernd Leno’s hands, a moment not deemed worthy of making the Match of the Day highlights package.
And so, with a few days to go in the transfer window, it feels like City are short of a creative attacking midfielder and a goal-hungry striker. Facundo Buonanotte and Jamie Vardy cannot play every second of every game, and if City want to pose a threat for 90 minutes each week, it feels like they need reinforcements.
While it seems City are in the market for both of those signings, budget constraints may restrict how prolific the new recruits are. City may not be able to afford the brilliance that fans are craving.
If that’s the case, they at least need to be players who can develop over this season and beyond, so that fans can be excited for their futures. That would help save the reputation of the transfer department.
The moment Jordan Ayew came onto the pitch for his debut, City fans started chanting for director of football Jon Rudkin to leave the club, a response that showed they’re not satisfied with the club’s business. Transfers are a collaborative process involving many different people and departments, but the director of football is always going to be the face of the deals and bear the brunt of the criticism.
At £15m for Caleb Okoli, at £20m rising to £25m for Oliver Skipp, and at £5m rising to £8m for Ayew, fans at Atalanta, Spurs, and Crystal Palace were surprised by how much their clubs were receiving, claiming the offers were too good to turn down. City supporters have been given the impression that their club has overpaid for their summer signings. And it’s not as if City are buying other clubs’ star men. These are rotation options at best.
Neither does it feel like many of City’s signings have improved the starting line-up. In supporters’ preferred teams, there may only be two of the seven new recruits. One is Abdul Fatawu, who was here last season anyway, and the other is Buonanotte, who wouldn’t be in the team if the club had not sold Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
City have also watched fellow promoted club Ipswich make exciting signings, bringing in Jack Clarke and Sammie Szmodics, the two best opposition players to visit the King Power Stadium last season, for under £25m combined. There may have been concern over Szmodics’ age and resale value, but £9m for a 28-year-old looks better business than the £8m City spent on 32-year-old Ayew.
What Ayew has and what Szmodics doesn’t is Premier League experience and that seems to be the route City are taking. It’s perhaps why Will Alves and Tom Cannon have not had a look-in.
Cooper is cramming his squad full of players who understand the league. It could be a shrewd move. Certainly, the usual criticism levelled at promoted clubs, that they lack Premier League know-how, can’t be directed at City.
But it also means there’s no grace period for these new recruits. Fans will give leeway to new signings from overseas or without top-flight experience, but the players City have signed need to hit the ground running.
If those that do the buying and selling at City are to regain the faith of supporters and stop the chants, they need the likes of Ayew, Skipp, and Bobby De Cordova-Reid to start making an impact, and they need two more promising attacking signings before the deadline. It’s a big week for the club.
Why Ricardo isn’t playing with Justin not wholly to blame for goals
That Ricardo Pereira has played zero minutes so far this season was a point of contention among supporters even before City conceded twice from their right-back position against Fulham. Now it’s a huge focus of frustration.
But while James Justin received much of the blame, he was not the only player at fault. For a start, both Emile Smith Rowe and Alex Iwobi’s finishes came from Fulham goal kicks. In those moments, City should be organised. They weren’t.
The first goal was a defensive disaster all around. Wout Faes ran high into the midfield to press Andreas Pereira, only for a chipped ball to take him out of the game. So when Jannik Vestergaard charged out to the left to challenge Rodrigo Muniz, he had to win his duel. He didn’t.
That left Adama Traore on the ball in the centre of the pitch with both of City’s centre-backs out of the game. In that moment, Justin has a lot of space to marshall, and it is natural for him to shuffle into the middle, where the danger usually is, and concede more space on his flank.
Justin’s error came from being too eager. When Adama played the pass out to the Fulham left, the City right-back made a slight step forwards, as if to attempt the interception. He quickly realised that wasn’t on, but even one step in the wrong direction put him on the back foot, and he could not get back to shut down Smith Rowe, with Iwobi’s dummy run obstructing him too.
That eagerness was a problem for the second goal too. Nobody was covering Antonee Robinson on the halfway line, so Justin made the jump and tried to press him, perhaps not thinking he was capable of a first-time ball around the defence with his weaker right foot. Justin left a gap for Iwobi that neither Harry Winks nor Vestergaard were ready to cover, and the Nigerian streaked away.
Even before those goals, fans thought there should be a place in the 11 for Ricardo. Now those calls are deafening, with many questioning what Cooper is not seeing. Ricardo is one of the best technicians in the City squad and was integral to their success last season, and yet he’s not been given an opportunity so far.
Cooper sat down with Ricardo ahead of the first game of the season to tell him he was selecting Justin as his right-back for now. The manager gave the impression that it is a choice between the two, and that he won’t consider either in place of Victor Kristiansen on the left.
Right now, it feels like it’s Justin’s greater physical attributes that are getting him the nod. He is a proper athlete. He’s stronger and more suited to dropping in to form a back three, while he’s got the stamina and legs to do lots of running, something that is required now City aren’t dominating possession, and something that is no longer one of Ricardo’s strong suits.
Plus, one bad game does not make Justin a bad defender. Last Monday, he held his own against Son Heung-min, one of the most difficult opponents any full-back can face in the Premier League.
While doing exactly what the fans want is not going to be at the forefront of Cooper’s mind, it does feel like Ricardo needs a chance, given what he showed last season. Him and Winks built up a great partnership in midfield last season and it feels like City would retain possession much more comfortably if that combination was utilised again.
Equally, Victor Kristiansen had a tough time at left-back at Fulham, and so it does feel like it shouldn’t be ruled out that Justin can swap flanks. Really, fans need to see Ricardo in a competitive game to understand why Cooper might not be picking him, because the evidence of last year and the seasons before suggest he would make this team better.
Efficiency needed in attack if possession football not possible
Scoring and creating chances from set-pieces is a big plus for City, but they need to be as an addition to, rather than instead of, opportunities from open play. At Fulham, City had six shots from inside the area, and Faes had three of them. Vestergaard and Ndidi had one each from a set-piece too, leaving just one effort from open play inside the 18-yard-area.
That’s not a recipe for success. City had 45 per cent of the ball at Fulham compared to 30 per cent against Tottenham, but had fewer touches inside the final third and the opposition’s penalty area. If they’re not going to dominate the ball as they did last season, they have to be more efficient in attack.
Against Spurs, in the second half, they did that. Excluding set-pieces, they completed 11 passes and crosses into the penalty area in their opening match. At Fulham, they did it just twice.
There were some poor decisions at the top end, with players trying overly-audacious passes or shots, while there were a couple of swift attacks that didn’t lead to a chance. Twice in two second-half minutes, Vardy had the opportunity to find Fatawu in space in the box, but couldn’t squeeze the pass through.
It’s a clear area for improvement. Because of the level of the opposition City will face this season, it may be unreasonable to expect their rates of possession to rise, so what they need to work on is ensuring that in the moments they do have the ball, they are able to get it into the final third, and into the penalty area, on a greater number of occasions.
Leave a Reply