Match Report: Crystal Palace 2 - 2 Leicester City

Leicester City came from ahead to settle for a draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park this Saturday afternoon. The Foxes took a first-half lead through a vintage Jamie Vardy strike following an inch-perfect Wilfred Ndidi through ball. Just after the restart, Ndidi was again the provider, flicking the ball to Stephy Mavididi for a simple finish. Palace got one back almost immediately through Jean-Phillipe Mateta. City looked to see out the match, but substitute Conor Coady fouled Ismaïla Sarr in the box. Mateta sent Mads Hermansen the wrong way in injury time to complete the comeback for the hosts.

Really bizarre graphic from VAR there. My understanding is that Mateta was onside because he was behind the ball when Mitchell played it, but you’d never know it from that image.

An away point is not the worst result, but the way we got it is extremely worrying. Given the way City are setting up, 2-0 leads will be rare, and squandering this one is a punch to the gut. There was plenty of effort and more than a few bright spots, but this is the kind of result that destroys the players’ confidence in themselves and their manager.

SofaScore: https://www.sofascore.com/football/match/leicester-city-crystal-palace/hsG#id:12436938

I was going to leave it for later, but let’s talk about the manager for a moment. I’m having difficulty understanding what identity he’s trying to stamp on this club, and some of the players are having the same concerns. We started the match today with two of our best players, Ricardo Pereira and Abdul Fatawu, on the bench. Facundo Buonanotte and Bilal El Khannouss were both unused substitutes. Now, this is mitigated somewhat by Ndidi being our clear MotM as a #10 (and yes, those words look strange no matter how many times you re-read them), but the message delivered by player selection and tactics was: “We’re not as good as Palace, so we’re going to try to defend and hope we steal a point.”

I don’t blame Coady too much for the penalty; I don’t think he saw Sarr at all when he dove into the tackle. But, this is exactly what happens when you decide to do all of your defending in your own penalty box. It’s deeply frustrating to watch, and I can only imagine how the players felt. The players need to believe in their manager, but that belief needs to go both ways. I don’t get the sense that Cooper believes in this squad and that is a recipe for a host of problems.

Time does not exist for this man. Also, check out that pass.

On the plus side? The aforementioned Mr. Ndidi was brilliant. He won the ball well up the pitch several times and his passing was (mostly) on-point. Wilf now has 3 assists in 4 matches and I think he’s tied for second in that category. Vardy hardly saw the ball, but he was Jamie Vardy when it mattered and now has 138 Premier League goals, just 13 shy of surpassing Michael Owen and you know he’s got his eye on that target. Ayew was really good on the ball, Mavididi caused some problems, Skipp showed a little pace, and I thought Okoli was very solid.

As usual, Jason says in one sentence what it takes me 1,000 words to say. There’s a reason he gets paid to do this.

Three Takeaways:

1. We’re not solid enough defensively to sit back and invite pressure for 45 minutes. Kristiansen is still a work in progress and the midfield pairing of Winks and Skipp were unable to wrest control of the ball from their counterparts. There are plenty of options, but the best ones would involve moving our most creative player out of attacking areas. This is an area Cooper must address. If this team can’t hold a two-goal advantage against teams of Palace’s quality, we’re going to be back in the Championship by March.
2. We have more attacking ability than we’ve shown so far despite our statistics. Coming into this match, the Foxes were 19th out of 20 in xG and today’s match won’t move that needle even with the two goals. Vardy remains an isolated figure without Fatawu and Mavididi up top with him. Adding Odsonne Édouard to the mix will only add to the options available, but it will all come to naught if these players don’t see the ball in attacking positions.
3. The third kit is solid. I think I like it better than the away kit. I know it’s simple, but it works and it’s not overly busy. It just needs collars...and a better sponsor.
4. (Bonus!) I’ll never not enjoy seeing Jeffrey Schlupp on the pitch, even if it’s in the wrong shirt. Lad scored a hat-trick on his debut for us after all.

The draw that isn’t quite a defeat but sure feels like one gives us 2 points from 4 matches, good enough for 15th on the table. That’s not really good enough, is it? Holding on to a 2-0 advantage would have seen us rise to the top half of the table. We host Everton next Saturday in a match we really need to take something from. After that, we’re off to the West Midlands to square off against Walsall in the League Cup on Tuesday, 24 September.

Leicester City: Hermansen, Justin, Okoli, Kristiansen, Skipp, Winks, Ayew (Coady), Ndidi (Choudhury), Mavididi (Fatawu), Vardy (C)

Crystal Palace: Henderson, Guehi, Lacroix, Clyne (Kamada), Doucoure (Hughes), Wharton, Mitchell (Schlupp), Munoz (Sarr), Mateta, Eze, Nketiah