FPL Match Report – Leicester 0-0 Wolves Ayden Turner• 14 August, 2019

Leicester season ticket holder Ayden Turner shares his thoughts after attending the scoreless draw at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.

VAR the main highlight of this one and unfortunately this is not a nickname for Jamie Vardy.

Apart from a disallowed goal from the FPL communities’ favourite 4.5, Leander Dendoncker, there is not too much to report on from the first game of the season at the King Power. A tight contest from two teams at a similar level of quality, with limited chances for either side.

Starting Lineups

Leicester

4-3-3

Schmeichel

Pereira, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell

Ndidi, Choudhury, Tielemans

Perez, Vardy, Maddison

Substitutions:

Barnes for Choudhury 61 mins.

Albrighton for Perez 76 mins.

Wolves

3-5-2

Patricio

Bennett, Coady, Boly

Doherty, Dendoncker, Neves, Moutinho, Jonny

Jimenez, Jota

Substitutions:

Cutrone for Jota 76 mins.

Saiss for Neves 81 mins.

Bookings:

Jonny 31′.

Neves 60′.

Leicester City

Leicester set up in a 4-3-3 formation with Soyuncu (4.5) taking the empty centre back spot as predicted after the departure of Maguire to Man Utd. He looks like, for now at least, that he is going to be a starting centre back. He was caught out of position a couple of times but overall had a good game. He is one to monitor if Leicester look like they are going to be keeping a few clean sheets.

Pereira (6.0) was very good going forward, he was always looking to join the attack and had the better of Jonny for most the game. Still a bonus magnet, especially when Leicester keep a clean sheet and picked up all three in this match. Chilwell (5.5) on the other hand did not have a great game.

In front of this defence was a three-man midfield with Ndidi (5.0) being thrown straight in, even though he had not played a minute of pre-season. This didn’t seem to faze him one little bit and he was my man of the match. He reads the game so well but apart from the odd long shot he is not really going to offer too much over the season from an FPL perspective.

Choudhury (4.5) was the other holding midfielder, I don’t expect we’ll see this set up regularly as it lacks the creativity to break teams down in comparison to Tielemans and Maddison in the central midfield roles. So, I don’t think Choudhury will be a regular starter in the side.

Tielemans (6.5) was then set to be the more attacking of the midfield trio. He was always looking to create something, but it was difficult in such a tight match. He should have had an assist in what was the best chance of the first half for Leicester. Tielemans hit a pass square across the six-yard box to the waiting Vardy but he couldn’t connect with the pass and the ball missed him completely and the move broke down.

The front three was made up of Perez, Maddison and Vardy with Perez starting on the right side and Maddison on the left side. Again, like in the final pre-season game it was soon noticeable that the players are allowed freedom in quite a fluid system. Halfway through the first half Perez and Maddison switched sides and there were times Perez was getting central, though not as much as he did in the 4-1-4-1 system against Atalanta.

Perez (6.5) had a quiet game and struggled to really have any impact, he was then replaced by Marc Albrighton in the 76th minute. His only half chance was when a Maddison corner was knocked down by Soyuncu but Perez couldn’t quite react to put the ball in the back of the net. This was one of 12 corners Leicester had during the match but most of them came to nothing, maybe missing the target man Harry Maguire in the middle of the box.

Maddison (7.0) also struggled to create anything in this game. I would prefer to see him in more of a central role alongside Tielemans, like he played in pre-season and in the latter part of this game, but it remains to be seen on Rodgers preferred role in the side for him. Even more so with the signing of Praet (5.5).

Jamie Vardy (9.0) struggled to get involved in the game and had less touches than any other outfield player. He should have made more of the chance created by Tielemans, but apart from this he struggled to find any space in behind a Wolves defence that sat very deep.

Rodgers did try to address this problem with his first substitution in the 61st minute with Harvey Barnes (6.0) coming on for Hamza Choudhury. This saw Leicester trying to stretch the game with Barnes taking up a wide role on the left with Perez wide right and Maddison coming to play central midfield with Tielemans. Substitute Barnes had Leicester’s first and only shot on target, which took until the 81st minute to arrive; it was a long curling shot from distance but didn’t trouble Rui Patricio who had a very quiet afternoon. In the final moments of the game a nice run and one two pass with Vardy saw Barnes burst into the box but his cut back wasn’t met by a Leicester player and was cleared to safety by Wolves ending a frustrating afternoon for both teams.

Leicester controlled the play for long periods of the game, dominating the match with 70% possession. They made more passes than any other team in the Premier League this weekend but ultimately only managed one shot on target, the lowest of any Premier League team this weekend. They lacked the key final ball and really struggled to break down a very well organised Wolves team who were happy to sit very deep and try to create moves on the counter.

Rodgers commented after the game that he set the team up to try and match Wolves’ formation with a front three against their three-man defence and then two holding midfielders to try and stop Wolves creativity. Leicester did struggle to really create anything, but credit must be given to Wolves for how organised they were.

The Visitors

Wolves were set up in their usual 3-5-2 which served them so well through the back end of last season. They came with the plan to sit deep and hit Leicester on the counterattack, and they did this effectively several times but were ultimately let down by poor finishing. They were very strong defensively not allowing Leicester any room in behind. Willy Boly (5.0) was the standout from the centre backs and he also picked up three bonus points and showed his aerial presence in the box from corners too.

Out of the two wing backs, Doherty (6.0) and Jonny (5.5), the latter caught the eye more with his link up play with Diogo Jota. Looks like there could be some assist potential there, although he did struggle defensively at times against Pereira especially early in the game.

Dendoncker (4.5) who is currently taking up a lot of bench slots in FPL teams is one I was particularly interested in and he was involved in the big talking point of the match. Moutinho’s corner was met in the air by Dendoncker who headed the ball goalward, it hit Boly and then dropped kindly for Dendoncker who volleyed it into the back of the net. After celebrations from both the Wolves fans and the players, the ball was returned to the centre spot for the restart before the referee indicated that VAR was being checked. After a few anxious moments from both sides the goal was ruled out as the original header from Dendoncker had hit Willy Boly’s arm. It was certainly not intentional, but under the new rules where a ball hits the hand or arm then the goal is disallowed whether intentional or not. He also had a chance early on which he shot over the bar from 18 yards out after a good run from Diogo Jota. On another occasion he was bursting into the box to support a Wolves counterattack. Worth keeping an eye on as he could yet prove to be viable as a cheap enabler in the starting 11.

Jota (6.5) was the liveliest of the Wolves players but his finishing let him down, on another day he could have had a couple of goals. Right on the stroke of half time he dispossessed Ricardo Pereira and charged through towards the goal, but the Wolves man ended up falling over his own feet and the ball was cleared to safety. Jota had another couple of chances in the second half, one which was blocked and one that he dragged well wide. He really should have done a lot better one on one with Kasper Schmeichel but had this gone in, I think VAR may have come into play again as he looked to be in an offside position when the ball was played. Jota was then replaced on 76 mins for Cutrone (6.0), making his Premier League debut for Wolves. He looks to be good value if he is not going to be subbed early each game, so this is something to monitor.

Jimenez (7.5) was very quiet in the first half, he had a couple of chances in the second half which were wasted. A long ball over the top of the defenders from Neves gave Jimenez a ball to chase, he then cut inside the back tracking Soyuncu but his shot on goal was very tame and went straight into Schmeichel’s arms. Although from watching the replay it looks like Jimenez was marginally offside. Personally, I didn’t see enough to justify the extra 1.0 over Jota.

Round Up

A close game between two evenly matched sides, both managers wanted to try and stop the oppositions strengths and ultimately ended up cancelling each other out. There was not a lot in this game to suggest an urgent need to buy either of Leicester or Wolves assets, but also not any indications to sell at this point. Hopefully gameweek two will give us more information on this.