A reasonable enough red card, but does the man who isn’t Mahrez deserve so much flak?
WEST HAM
BRENDAN Rodgers’ hand has been forced, and Leicester City fans are happy about it. But should they be?
It is difficult to find positives in a 4-1 defeat in which City were dismantled so comprehensively, West Ham the technically, physically and tactically stronger team on the night. And so there are few straws for City supporters to clutch at. But one of those within reach is: “At least Ayoze Perez won’t play the next game.”
The Spaniard is now suspended for three matches after his red card contributed to Monday’s defeat. It was a terribly ill-judged, if slightly unfortunate, lunge and another stick with which to beat a player who takes a lot of criticism. Much of the condemnation of Perez is based on two factors he can’t control: that he cost £30 million and that he is not Riyad Mahrez.
It was the same for Rachid Ghezzal and Cengiz Under. Any new right-sided winger is compared to the last very good one City had, who happens to be the most technicallydazzling player in the club’s history, their player of the year in their greatest year.
With that shadow cast over him, Perez’s performances are always viewed in a harsher light. He is the symbol of what City don’t have – a top-class right winger – so very little praise comes his way, even when he’s doing pretty well.
Albeit it’s a very small sample size, but in the two Premier League games so far, he has created four chances - the most at the club - and double the second-ranked player on the list, despite spending much less time on the pitch.
Before his red card, he helped fashion City’s best opening of the first half, playing in Ricardo Pereira down the right. He was also in the right place to latch onto James Maddison’s flick, but then snatched at the chance, wrongly choosing to shoot first time rather than take a touch.
His footwork has been good, his movement has been good, his combination play with Ricardo has been good, but sections of the fanbase are rejoicing that he won’t feature at Norwich.
But now Rodgers has been dealt this hand, what should he do?
One question for outsiders has been: “Why is Kelechi Iheanacho sat on the bench?”
After all, he was the Premier League’s in-form striker for the final three months of last season, and even finished as City’s top marksman.
TALKING POINTS FROM THE
DEFEAT
In the two Premier League games so far, Ayoze Perezhas created four chances, the most at the club
The answer is that Rodgers is yet to experiment with how he can get Jamie Vardy, Harvey Barnes and Iheanacho all in the same team. Perez’s ban might now give him the chance to try.
Maybe Maddison could be pushed over to the right, given he will still naturally move inside to create space for Ricardo, thus allowing Iheanacho to join Vardy up front? Maybe Iheanacho could even play on the right, drifting inwards.
Marc Albrighton seems to be the most natural fit, while Ricardo moving forward and Timothy Castagne returning to the side is another option, but neither of these work with how Rodgers has been using Perez, moving inside to tilt the system, confuse the opposition, and create space for the right-back.
Maybe, just maybe, City will get that right winger they’ve long craved through the door and into the team before they head to Carrow Road.
YOU didn’t need to have an abacus with you to know that the top two passing combinations on Monday night were Caglar Soyuncu to Daniel Amartey, and Amartey to Soyuncu.
It was slow and risk-averse, but it was also patient, and probably the right idea.
City knew West Ham were really good on the counter-attack - their double defeat to the Hammers last season was principally down to that. They rush forward with pace and skill, the whole team doing so together, with every player knowing their role. Out of possession, their shape is very good too, guarding the key areas of the pitch while also enabling them to nab the ball and rush forward.
So, from City’s point of view, what they didn’t want to do was play risky passes out of their defence to set up the easy counters. Amartey had twice given the ball away against Wolves with poor balls forward, and if not for a combination of bad finishing and desperate defending, City would have conceded twice.
They didn’t want a repeat of that, so the two centre-backs stayed patient, switching the ball from side to side, hoping that movement ahead of them would create enough space for a pass forward to be played without any danger of it being intercepted.
When City got it right, they looked threatening, Harvey Barnes getting into the box a few times, and then Ricardo and Perez seeing joy on the other side.
But the issue was that, firstly, the movement ahead of the centrebacks was not urgent enough, and so didn’t disrupt West Ham’s system enough, and secondly, that when City did play the balls forward, their touch wasn’t sharp enough, or they immediately gave it up.
It was Vardy who was guilty of doing so for the first goal, but he wasn’t the only one.
The plan didn’t work, but in principle, the passes across the back-line were not the issue.
SAYING all that, more could have been done. It still felt like City fell into the traps that cost them last season’s games against West Ham.
They were always going to lose possession and give the Hammers a chance to counter at some point, so why not devise a defensive shape that can deal with that? Instead, City had Soyuncu and Luke Thomas diving in, creating even more space for West Ham to work with.
Plus, West Ham again dominated at crosses and set-pieces as City had no answer to their prowess in the air.
City’s defensive injury situation is horribly unfortunate. None of the four defenders who featured most regularly last season have yet played a single minute this term, while two more defenders signed in the summer and have yet been unable to start a Premier League match.
Signing Jannik Vestergaard as an injury replacement only for him to get injured himself is almost comical if you like your humour dark.
The Dane, with his stature and his passing ability, certainly would have boosted City, but as Rodgers always says, he has to work with the players he has available.
And with the players on the pitch, it felt a little too much like it was simply hoped they would be better at dealing with West Ham this time, rather than a case of solutions being put in place to try to stop them.
With no Jonny Evans, no Wesley Fofana and no Vestergaard, there is more responsibility on Soyuncu’s shoulders. Performances like that leave doubts as to whether that responsibility is too much for him. Against Wolves, he showed leadership and maturity in the way he commanded City’s defence, routinely stepping in at the right time, putting himself in the best positions to clear crosses or block shots. Those are attributes he has developed over the course of his three years at the club.
It felt like City fell into the traps that cost them last season’s games against West Ham
But the issue is that they are not ever-present and, even now, he is capable of having a shocker.
He was desperately poor in the last result of this kind, the 4-2 home defeat to Newcastle at the end of last season, and he was culpable for two of the goals on Monday night as well, giving the ball away for the second, and allowing Michail Antonio to turn him too easily for the third.
He’s a very good defender on his day. He needs to get to a point where he’s a very good defender every day. And he needs to be able to do it when he doesn’t have Evans there to guide him.
Perhaps more than any other, it’s a position you need to be consistent in.