Preview ahead of Man City! by Simon Mack

Leicester City vs Manchester City

Saturday 22^nd February 2020 5:30pm

King Power Stadium

Following a goalless trip across the midlands to face Wolverhampton Wanderers last Friday the foxes host 2^nd place rivals Manchester City in a Premier League Saturday tea time showdown.

Leicester can close the gap to just one point on their visitors with a victory and whilst the sky blues heaped more relegation woe on visitors West Ham with a 2-0 victory at home midweek the foxes have been rested up and preparing for the challenge.

Man City arrive at King Power Stadium with a mixed bag of results in the recent past and the home win against the hammers was preceded by a 2-0 defeat away to Spurs that saw Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko take an early bath. Prior to that a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford did not stop the sky blues from progressing to the Carabao Cup final, and a 4-0 demolition of Premier League promotion hopefuls Fulham once again affirmed Man City’s supreme strength in squad depth. A draw at home to the eagles and a narrow away day win at the blades preceded the cup annihilation but the consistency of the Manchester City machine seems to have spluttered this term and the recent news of a 2 year ban from the UEFA Champions League due to financial irregularities might well have some of their stars looking beyond the Etihad for future opportunity.

For the visitors their blue moon has found Raheem Sterling ‘limping alone’ as the England star and recent Real Madrid courter has a hamstring problem and won’t be available to face the foxes. German wide man Leroy Sane is also not in contention as he continues to recover from knee surgery. Oleksandr Zinchenkois is available again having served his one match ban for being sent off at Spurs mid-week whilst talisman David Silva is 50-50 with an unknown gripe from the mid-week victory.

For Leicester City another decent lay off this week has afforded more time for the players to gain their breath back and given Brendan Rodgers some quality time to work with his squad. The foxes performances so far this season have been a more than pleasant surprise, but the hosts are without a league win in a month (Jan 22^nd West Ham) with 2 draws in the league prior to this top four ding dong. In the reverse fixture Man City were the victors despite a superb Jamie Vardy strike and going into this one if Rodgers is going to navigate his men to 3 points the defensive midfield void in his squad will need to be overcome.

Midfield disruptors Wilfred Ndidi and Nampalys Mendy are both still nursing knee trouble whilst Hamza Choudhury’s 2 yellow cards in the second half against Wolves mean he will watch this one from the stands. Two schools of thought have sprung up with foxes fans as to Rodger’s most likely circumnavigation of the issue:

1: Play 3 at the back and 5 in midfield using Ricardo / Chilwell as wing backs, adding new loan signing Ryan Bennett in the middle of defence and Dennis Praet in the middle of the park for added guile.

2: Matty James makes a shock return to first team action having had wretched luck with injuries to fill the void.

I can’t say I’m keen on either but it will be a fascinating tactical dilemma to see unfold on Saturday night. The option of using a more defensive player as a stay at home midfielder might temp Rodgers too? Could a Fuchs or an Evans or a Soyunchu sit in there? Who knows? Well Rodgers must but during the pre-match media grilling he seemed keen to avoid committing any detail to his selection quandary. For me I’d sit Dennis Praet in there and tell him not to get adventurous with his duties. He can tackle, had a great engine and can find a ‘quarterback’ pass at times with great skill.

 Apart from the above the foxes head into this one fit ready and able and a key factor in their success Saturday night will be a return to scoring ways for Jamie Vardy. The Leicester legend was hailed as ‘exceptional’ by Man City boss Pep Guardiola in the lead up to this one but the foxes hero has not netted for his side competitively since the reverse fixture back before Christmas and whilst an injury kept for former England international out for a portion of that time it can be no coincidence that Leicester’s recent decline in results is at the same time that their talisman has not been finding the back of the net. There can be no doubt that service for Vardy in the right manner is key to him hitting his mark and for anyone who’s seen Leicester play recently they will know that the opportunities afforded to him by the creative players around him have dwindled of late.

If the foxes are to leave King Power Stadium as victors on Saturday evening the above will need to be overcome. What Rodgers does in terms of a defensive midfield ‘fix’ will be absolutely key,and the omission of Ndidi from proceedings cannot be underestimated. If his forward thinking men find Jamie Vardy with the right balls then there will be goals for the home side. And then there’s the return of Riyad Mahrez to his old stomping ground!! Oh those things he said in the press… I can’t see him getting a standing ovation!?! From a Leicester point of view it would be delightful to see a re energised James Maddison creating havoc amongst the sky blue’s star studded lines and ultimately see Rodgers and his men navigate their way to breathing down Manchester City’s neck as the sharp end of the season race for 2^nd spot plays out.

Leicester possible line up:

Schmeichel, Ricardo, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Praet, Tielemans, Maddison, Perez, Barnes, Vardy

Man City possible line up:

Ederson, Cancelo, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Rodri, Mahrez, Aguero, Bernardo