1. Ole announced it during his Friday conference that he would go for experience. He probably felt he had enough youth in the team and with three first eleven players missing, experience was deemed paramount. Make no mistake that Leicester will be in the top six this year or thereabouts, so a tough match was expected and such it was. In came Mata and Matic which undoubtedly slowed down our midfield. Fair pay to both though, they tried and were useful till they were on the pitch. Hats off to the Manager who freshened the team when it became obvious that they had given everything they had got and subbed both of them with twenty minutes to go. Ole was proactive and probably saved the result. Kudos where it’s due.
2. The youngsters have what it takes. Wan-Bissaka, James, Rashford, McTominay and even Pereira particularly when shifted to the centre of midfield in the last quarter of the match. Allow me to single out McTominay though. The lad has been excellent in this start of the season but today he was simply fantastic. The absence of Pogba alongside him in midfield not only did not derail his performance but the lad stepped up to the plate. In James Maddison, Leicester have their best player by a mile but while he still showed class during the match, McTominay dampened much of Maddison’s threat and his forays with the ball from midfield will become synonymous with him in the years to come. And I firmly believe that he will get even better as he gains more experience. Frightening.
3. Most of the times, football matches are won by fine margins. We would be second on our own today, if we had made the most of the penalties missed against Wolves and Crystal Palace. Penalty kicks are the best opportunity a team can have to score but still not easy to dispatch. Takers need to have guts and cold blood. And Marcus Rashford has them both in abundance. He has his critics who say that he is not polished and that he is not the perfect finisher, which may be true but people forget that he is still 21. His penalty kick against Schmeichel, who is renowned to save penalties was text-book stuff. Keeper on one side and the ball bulging the net on the other. My call to keep Marcus as our penalty taker even following the miss against Palace has been vindicated.
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Article contributed by Echoes Contributor Roderick. Comments are appreciated on our Facebook page.
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