Five Talking Points on Brentford Fixture…

Leicester City were unable to capitalise on a two-goal lead in their opening match of the new season to allow Brentford to snatch a point late on at the King Power Stadium.

New season, Same old.

Dropping points from leading positions was an Achilles heel for the foxes last season with us dropping twenty points from leading positions last year alone in the Premier League, further leads were coughed up in other competitions. For most of the first half yesterday Leicester dictated the possession but after an early second half wonder strike from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall the foxes seemed to take their foot of the accelerator. Allowing Brentford to control the game and put pressure on our defenders with sustained attacks and come the final whistle our two-goal lead had been cancelled out. Very reminiscent of last season.

Team selection and substitutions.

Something many fans anticipate the second the previous season finishes and all through pre-season is what will the starting eleven look like come the first game of the season. With an injury to wide man Harvey Barnes, Rodgers decided to have a back three of Amartey, Evans and Fofana with Castagne and Justin playing in the wingback role. In the holding midfield position Wilfred Ndidi made his return after missing the back end of last season through injury with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and a man whose future has been highly speculated throughout the summer in Youri Tieleman’s joining him in the midfield. Further up the pitch was James Maddison and Jamie Vardy with Vardy occupying the number nine role and Maddison staying behind him. Following the game, the fans were disappointed that Amartey had been played over Caglar Soyuncu as Amartey disappointed on both goals conceded, the first getting too deep to allow Toney to be that close to the goal and then being outmuscled, the second he did not get close enough to DaSilva allowing him the opportunity to shoot and get the equaliser. The sole substitution made when there was five available in high twenties celsius temperature was swapping Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for striker Patson Daka. Daka was unable to add a goal at the front and Dewsbury-Hall was missed in the midfield with us being less able to keep onto possession. In hindsight the swap was one that did not work out and with only one out of five substitutions being used our team would have been significantly fatigued compared to Brentford’s five new sets of fresh legs, something that could well and probably did play a part in our coughing up of the match.

Ward showed composure in first game as number one.

Having had the faith shown by Brendan to be given the number one on his shirt, Danny Ward showed composure and confidence. He gathered the ball well when he should have, came off his line confidently to collect balls coming into the box and did not make any mistakes with the ball at his feet. Something that would have been welcomed by City fans who last season were at times frustrated by Kasper Schmeichel’s reluctance to come out and gather balls instead choosing to stay on the line. A great start to a new era between the sticks at Leicester City for the Welshman

Tactics

Throughout the first half Leicester City controlled the tempo of the game. They played it up from the back and with Brentford happy to stay deep it worked perfectly. Higher up the pitch around the box the trio of Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall and Tielemans patiently played it around looking for openings to take a shot or play a ball through. Our wing backs in Castagne and Justin played very wide to open the space for this style of play. This worked very well and a one zero lead at half time was deserved and could potentially have been more. Come the second half especially following the withdrawal of Dewsbury-Hall though we lost control with us unable to retain possession and Brentford able to pile on prolonged periods of pressure to our defence.

Dewsbury-Hall set for a big season.

Having established himself as a regular at his boyhood club in the Premier League the next thing for Dewsbury-Hall is an England cap and performances like yesterday’s will put him in contention. He settled into the game nicely helping to dictate the tempo whilst looking for openings to create a threat regularly. His wonder strike super early in the second half capped off the performance with expert vision to spot the opening for the shot and take it on. Massive potential and big things to come for Kiernan this season.

A disappointing way to start the season for the foxes but it is a marathon not a sprint and hopefully the players put this to bed and start getting better results to think about starting at a tough opponent in Arsenal next week at the Emirates.