Leicester 0-0 Wolves -By Simon Mack

Leicester City 0 – 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers

11^th August 2019 14:00 King Power Stadium

Att: 32,050

VAR was the star and the saviour of the foxes first match of the Premier League campaign as Leander Dendoncker’s second half ‘poke’ in from a scrambled corner was disallowed for handball.

Dedoncker’s 53^rd minute goal took over a minute and a half to be ruled out, a period in which the Wolves fans had ripped the roof off with their veracious celebrations. Yet as Vardy stood with ball at feet on the centre spot it was referee Andre Marriner’s drawing of a box with his fingers in the air that saw the ball given back to Schmeichel in the Leicester goal and the Wolves fans furious.

This was a largely eventless affair (bar the VAR upheaval) in which the 2 respective midfields seemed to cancel each other out, and city manager Brendan Rodger’s selection of Wilfred Ndidi and Hamza Choudhury both in midfield told a story prior to kick off that the foxes had done their homework and the visitors strong 5 man midfield needed to be addressed.

Leicester set off in the first half in a formation that left little width except for the forward forays of the 2 centre backs, and whilst Riccardo had some bright attacking bursts along the right flank the left side was bereft of width.

City have a wealth of attacking midfielders at their disposal that all prefer to play off the striker or down the centre of the park, and in this game Tielemans, Maddison and Perez were used in support of lone front man Jamie Vardy, and it seemed whenever there was a moment of intensity to the foxes attack it was soon stifled by the opposition’s numbers around.

Pass = interception; dribbling = tackle, and it was testament to the tenacity of the visiting west midlands outfit that despite Leicester’s huge share of the possession it wasn’t until 80 minutes and more had passed on the King Power clock before a shot on target was registered at the visiting goal.

Caglar Soyuncu was the man to take Harry Maguire’s vacant spot in defence and for the most part was solid in his toil alongside the highly experienced Jonny Evans, and just in front of the bank of 4 sat the ever reliable Wilfred Ndidi who put in a shift that belied his lack of a preseason post Africa Cup of Nations duty with Nigeria. Time and again he mopped up waif and stray balls along with disrupting Wolves attacking forays, and his intensity as the game aged never waned and paid testament to Brendan Rodgers comments in the week leading up to the game that the foxes disrupter was fit and available for duty.

The game reached the hour mark with little in the way of a serious threat in the final 3^rd, and the foxes fans began to look to the bench to see if it would be stick or twist for the final half an hour. Rodger shuffled his pack just after the hour had passed bringing Harvey Barnes in and withdrawing Hamza Choudhury, then not long after Perez headed for the dug out to be replaced by Mark Albrighton. The midfielder for midfielder shuffle failed to live up to the plan b that Leicester’s forward threat was crying out for, and as the final 10 minutes of the match ticked away it felt a little as if neither side had the inclination to unlock the other.

Jamie Vardy’s frustrations at events almost boiled over late on when he sprinted ferociously across to the touchline to thwart Wolves timewasting tactics and ignite city into a last gasp push, but his efforts were not to bear fruit and the game petered out to the gentle tone of Marriner’s full time signal.

There is no doubt that VAR has the potential to turn any match on its head and this game illustrated that vividly. From the Wolves players and fans wild celebrations to just 2 minutes later foxes fans whooping and cheering like they’d scored a goal themselves when the VAR overturn verdict was displayed on the 2 huge King Power screens. For a brief few moments afterwards Leicester were being roared on as if they were the one who’d taken the lead, and it will be interesting to see what positive and negative effects this will play on city’s season to come.

If city are going to rely on Jamie Vardy as their sole man in attack then this newly assembled midfield must learn to feed him balls he can run onto or feed into quickly. The foxes talisman has always thrived when the team around him are geared to supply him that way, and whilst this game was a war of midfield attrition that neither side won as the season unfolds if they fail to provide for their most lethal weapon it could become a term that is lacking in goals.

Brendan Rodgers has assembled a squad that is filled with talented attacking midfielders and their rotation and use will be interesting to watch as the differing Premier League sides come to town. In my opinion with a war unravelling in midfield without a victor what this game was crying out for as it aged was a target man to go up top alongside Vardy and a ‘plan b’ outlet created to make the best fist of getting the job done.

My Player Ratings vs Wolves:

Schmeichel: 6.5 No real major shots of threat to deal with, but he dealt with what came at him. The playing out of the back mentality leads to the style of his distribution, but I like to see him be a bit more direct at times to mix it up.

Ricardo: 7.5 Another superb up and down effort, and for the largest part was the only consistent threat from wide for the foxes throughout the match.

Evans: 6.5 Did a job and did it well. His game management and experience are always of use and he’ll be the rock the defence is built around this season.

Soyuncu: 7.5 An assured and solid performance in place of the departing Maguire. Some timely tackles and put his body on the line in the name of keeping Wolves at bay.

Chilwell: 5.5 Way below par today and in a system where the full backs needed to push on to give the foxes width we say little of that today. Hesitated quite a bit when he did get forward and seemed to be just a tad off his normal high quality game.

Ndidi: 8 MOTM My man of the match today. Disruptive and tenacious as always. He’s a vital cog in keeping the city machine in control and going the right way up the pitch

Maddison: 6 Another who seemed off his game today. It was hard in the congestion of midfield to find space to create, but his corners were also not up to his usual high standards.

Choudhury: 7 Put in a busy shift and did all asked of him within a packed midfield. Subbed off for Harvey Barnes.

Tielemans: 7 Get involved and of all of Leicester’s attacking midfielders looked the one most likely to unlock the Wolves door. His attempted through balls were almost all cut out.

Perez: 6.5 A difficult type of game to have for your league debut. Worked hard and tried but never got himself into a position to break the deadlock. Subbed for Mark Albrighton

Vardy: 6 Was starved of opportunity for the vast majority of this game. You could see his frustrations rising as the game aged and he’ll need better service to be the threat we all want to see

Harvey Barnes: 6.5 Came on for Choudhury and made some jinking runs. Managed to get a shot off in anger also unlike most of his colleagues.

Mark Albrighton: 6.5 The usual ‘all in’ passionate cameo from the well liked midfielder. Tried his best to ignite something but this game was largely in stalemate.