Foxes Leave It Late – 2-2 Boro Fan Report

Yikes Scooby Doo that was all a bit frightening and late ! 100%LCFC sent our very own Scott Davies down to watch the Leicester 2-2 Boro draw, here is his views from the stands… Do YOU agree with him ?

The Foxes entertained Middlesbrough at the King Power having qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League after beating Brugge earlier in the week.

Having lost two home games on the bounce and surrendering their unbeaten home run against West Brom, City were surely eager to rectify their form in the Premier League, particularly languishing just 2 points above the drop zone.

Boro themselves have found their return to the Premier League a difficult one and are sitting below Leicester by just 1 point so a win for them would be a real coup going into the tough festive period. They were narrow losers’ last time out to Chelsea in a 1-0 defeat at the Riverside.

An enforced change in the middle for Leicester meant Andy King came in for the suspended Danny Drinkwater who accepted his violent conduct charge and is out for 3 games. City fans were delighted to see the inclusion of Matty James on the bench after 18 months out with injury, however Leo Ulloa was sacrificed as a result and this surely means the Argentine is surplus to requirements?

Middlesbrough kicked off the match and dominated possession from the start and City could not string 3 passes together. There were warning signs on 9 minutes when Marten de Roon flashed a shot wide of Zieler’s far post after the German Stopper unconvincingly punched a cross away from goal and the Foxes failed to clear their lines.

Just 3 minutes later, Boro opened the scoring through Alvaro Negredo ending his 977 minute goal drought. City were caught napping firstly down the left flank as Morgan stood routed to the spot trying to claim an offside. The ball was then spread wide left to Gaston Ramirez who found Negredo unmarked on the edge of the box and the Spaniard put the ball in the top right corner.

Whilst Boro did dominate the possession, they didn’t really trouble City after the goal, but the boys in blue continued to be their own worst enemy with a lack of understanding with each other and no cutting edge. It took until the 30^th minute to register a shot after Riyad Mahrez worked a bit of magic on the right flank before delivering a cross into Shinji Okazaki. The Japanese international crashed a delightful overhead kick onto the cross bar and the ball went harmlessly out of play for a goal kick.

City were thrown a lifeline on 34 after Callum Chambers was adjudged to have handballed in the box and Riyad Mahrez stepped up to make it one a piece going into the break.

You would be forgiven for thinking that Leicester might have come out guns blazing after the break, but sadly it was more of the same. Vardy never got going, Mahrez crowded out and struggling to adapt his game, King was non-existent in midfield and Zieler failing to communicate with his back four. The latter brought an ironic cheer from the crowd when Zeiler finally came and gathered a ball from a Boro attack.

Slimani replaced Vardy on 65 and just 2 minutes later, Mahrez also made way for Ahmed Musa. Okazaki and Musa had half chances on 69 and 70 respectively, however the Foxes found themselves behind again on 71.

Alvaro Negrado held his run well before racing through a static City backline. Fuchs was occupied marking two players whilst Morgan lost his man and Huth just wasn’t quick enough to track back before Negredo lashed a first time left foot shot across Zieler and into the net. Question marks were raised again over Zeiler’s positioning.

Daniel Amartey went close in the dying stages as his shot from outside the box curled wide and Slimani was left frustrated minutes later as Amartey took the ball away from him when it looked odds on the Algerian target man was going to drive home from close range.

With time ticking, City threw everything they had to get forward with Fuchs and Morgan pushed high up the field. Fuchs gathered a throw in on the right wing before playing a through ball into Morgan who found himself in the box. City’s Captain was then upended by Marten de Roon and the Foxes were given a get out of jail free card. With Vardy and Mahrez both off the field, Islam Slimani was the man to step up and fire City to an unlikely draw.

Make no mistake; we are in a relegation battle. This time last year, the computer predictor had us down for 82 points after 13 matches, this season it’s currently 38 points, 2 off the target everyone down there sets themselves to stay up. Raneiri was scoffed at for saying 40 points was what we were aiming for but how many would snap his hand off right now? I certainly would!

City have already been trailing for more minutes this season (417) than the whole of the 2015/16 campaign.

Something isn’t clicking, and despite the pain of watching our current performances, I’ll see you all next week in Sunderland!

Through the good times and the bad……

Man of the Match – Daniel Amartey