**Leicester City 0 v 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers**
Post Match Analysis by Stuart Dawkins
_The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation._
I have an apology to make. I am writing this the day after the match rather than as soon as I got home. I don’t usually miss a deadline. Consider it my response to City’s result against a team who had hitherto been a rather public mess for most of this season. I have never booed a Leicester player, I have never left a match before the final whistle, but I understand that each of us responds in our own way to the peculiar state of mind which is the disappointed and disillusioned football fan. My response, this week at least, was not to be arsed to write yesterday.
Saturday’s results meant that a home game against struggling Wolves looked a prime opportunity to climb a couple of places in the table. Not enough to get out of the relegation scrap, but enough perhaps to temper the seemingly inevitable slip into that territory where the talk is of “three from these four clubs will go down”.
The main pre-match talking point was the return of Pukka Pies. The second pre-match talking point was the inclusion of Danny Ward in goal. Soumare, to many people’s surprise, one of City’s most consistent players this season, was back. Ndidi was still unfit, being replaced by Skipp. And up front, Van Nistelrooy went for Mavididi, El Khannouss and Ayew to support Vardy, playing Ayew on the right wing which surprised me a bit as I think Ayew is the best player we have at holding up the ball, something City have been woefully poor at this season.
City started the match fairly well. A well-weighted lob from Kristiansen looked nailed on to find Vardy for a one-one-one with Saar in the Wolves goal, but the keeper did brilliantly to make not one but two interventions outside the penalty box to clear the danger. Wolves’ tactics were to spread their wide men very wide, to play tentative lobs of their own up to their striker, and to rely on in-form Cunha.
After nineteen minutes, one such tentative lob was not dealt with at all by Vestergaard nor by the covering Coady, Guedes somehow got the ball near the corner of the six-yard box, and he put a cross-shot into the far corner of the goal.
City responded well to going behind and were the better team for the next quarter hour. There were noticeably more successful balls from the keeper to a retreating Skipp or Vardy to recycle behind the Wolves block. For once, none of the plays out of defence resulted in gifts for the opposition.
Oh no, this week the gifts for the opposition were going to come via different routes. In the 34th minute, against the run of play, a frankly poor deep cross by Wolves from the right was inexplicably left by Justin. It bounced to a now-unmarked Gomes, who chested the ball down. Through a combination of Gomes’ agility, luck and him, basically, falling over, the ball headed towards the goal. Through a combination of Ward’s lack of agility, luck and, basically, him falling over, a laughable gift of a goal was made even more laughable as the ball trickled over the line as City and Wolves players chased it in vain, Keystone Cops-style. Often in football, timing and momentum is everything. In those farcical few seconds, this went from being “one-nil down, it’s only Wolves” to … well in my case that was not the moment when I decided to miss my deadline but it logically might have been. For a good number of City fans, it was the breaking point, triggering that most cutting of chants from your own fans “What the f\*\*king hell was that?”
City, again, responded reasonably well, Vardy had a shot cleared from the line. There was still some sense of “only two-nil, it’s only Wolves”. Then, guess what? Another hopeful ball down the wing by Wolves, another failure to deal with a simple defensive problem, a shot from another tight angle, this time from talisman Cunha, and City were three down before half-time … against Wolves. The City outfield players trudged back to the centre circle without even a consoling glance back at their keeper.
Which brings us, inevitably, to Danny Ward. He has been at the club for ever, so it seems, and for the majority of that for ever, the fans have not rated him that highly. Indeed, I remember only one time when the fans took him to their heart, making penalty saves in a Cup match away, ironically, at Wolves many years ago. Today he was booed and then received ironic cheers whenever he did something right in the second half.
Of all the positions on the pitch, goalkeeper is the one that relies most heavily on a combination of skill, instinct and luck. Yes, of course, you can make your own luck with your choices, but there is not much you can do about the timing of when your teammates mess things up and/or make brilliant last-minute blocks or whatever in front of you.
Danny Ward is observably not as good a keeper as Hermansen – few are. But boy, is he unlucky too. Would Hermansen have let in all three Wolves goals? Probably not. Would he have saved all of them? Well, the truth is he should not have had to. The same at Newcastle, when even Hermansen would have been picking the ball out of his net twice before making a save had he been the second-half substitute.
By the time the second half started against Wolves, several thousand home fans had decided that today was the day for that last-minute Christmas shop, or that being home in plenty of time for Spurs v Liverpool on the telly was a good idea. Whatever their reasoning, they had left the stadium. They missed Vestergaard and Skipp being replaced by Faes and Winks. Only eight minutes into the half, Justin and El Khannouss were replaced by Choudhury and de Cordova-Reid, with a rejig of formation to a Maresca-like inverted full-back; Choudhury doing the Ricardo role
City looked better in the second half, but better in that way that is so common in the Premier League at present. That is, they connected passes and looked ok up until the final bit – the one that involves scoring goals – whilst the opposition sat back in a defensive shape and let them get on with it. Vardy had a couple more chances, but it was Wolves who came closest to scoring from a couple of break-aways. As the match progressed, Buonanotte came on for Ayew, but by then the stadium was approaching half-empty, making a bitterly cold afternoon feel even colder. Even Top left well before the end.
One of the bonuses of missing my deadline is that I have by now listened to Van Nistelrooy’s’ post-match comments. And here is a thing I do like about Ruud. His post-match comments are thoughtful and have some content.
It was easy to lambast City’s defence for the rout at Newcastle, a performance worse even than the Wolves match. But I agreed with Ruud, the goals were the result of defensive lapses, but the basic problem was a woefully underperforming midfield.
Similarly for this match, Ward should have done better for the three goals. But the defence should have done their basics and prevented all three chances. It gives little comfort to note that City have been so poor recently – even in games they have won or drawn – that conceding only eight shots in a match is progress. Turning three hopeful long balls into three conceded goals through individual errors was the issue, and it happens time and again. With Hermansen in goal the match dynamic tends to be (say) seven or eight silly lapses and he saves the majority, today, with Ward it was three and he didn’t save any. Yes, the keeper makes a difference, but the keeper is not the root cause.
Unless City can get more defensive stability and more control in midfield, they are in big trouble. They looked better with the extra midfielder provided by the inverted full-back, but whether they can risk that against a rampant Liverpool is doubtful. Anfield on Boxing Day threatens to be another rout, although in truth it is also a free-hit for City as expectations are so low.
There is still over half the season left. That provides time to recover, but at present the momentum is going the wrong way and it will take a lot to turn that momentum around. Here’s hoping that I am inspired to hit my deadline for the rest of the season, but I’m not sure I’d bet on it.
**City:** Danny Ward, James Justin (Hamza Choudhury 51’), Conor Coady, Jannik Vestergaard (Wout Faes 46’), Victor Kristiansen, Boubakary Soumare, Oliver Skipp (Harry Winks 46’), Bilal El Khannouss (Bobby De Cordova-Reid 51’), Stephy Mavididi, Jordan Ayew (Facundo Buonanotte 84’), Jamie Vardy.
**Wolverhampton Wanderers:** Jose Sa, Santiago Bueno, Toti Gomes (Craig Dawson 83), Nelson Semedo (Carlos Forbs 89), Andre, Joao Gomes (Jean-Ricner Bellegarde 89), Rodrigo Gomes, Matt Doherty, Jorgen Strand Larsen (Tommy Doyle 84), Matheus Cunha, Goncalo Guedes (Hee-Chan Hwang 74)