Fatigue not an excuse when you have five substitutes to call on
ON HOW CITY TWO-GOAL LEAD
MANAGERS live and die by their substitutions, at least in the eyes of fans. They are the most overt tactical changes that can be made and their success or failure is immediately clear to see.
In that sense, Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers lost the battle with his Brentford counterpart Thomas Frank on Sunday.
Rodgers made one change that had little effect on the game, while Frank used all of his allotted five, as is allowed this season, and it helped his side clinch a point from two goals down.
In fact, both of the Bees’ goals came three minutes after Frank had made a double substitution. How’s that for an immediate impact?
Given how the game turned in the final half-hour, Rodgers’ substitutions were the big talking point among fans after the match.
There were two issues: the one change he made, and why he did not make more.
Rodgers’ only substitution made sense, given his explanation, but it feels like he withdrew the wrong player.
With Brentford switching to a back three, getting the goal through Ivan Toney and changing the momentum of the game, Rodgers, right, explained that he put on another striker in Patson Daka so that he and Jamie Vardy could split and press the
Bees’ two wide centre-backs, who were getting on the ball more and feeding their midfield, allowing them to start more attacks.
It also gave City extra pace to play on the counter.
It didn’t work. It didn’t halt Brentford’s momentum at all.
But there was reasonable thought behind it and not every substitution is going to be a success.
The issue was who was taken off, rather than the change itself. By withdrawing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, City’s midfield lost their structure.
The academy product had been left of a three in the centre of the park, with Wilfred Ndidi in the middle and Youri Tielemans on the right.
James Maddison was floating further forward.
But nobody adjusted to Dewsbury-Hall not being there and it caused problems.
Daniel Amartey and James Justin on the left side of the defence were being caught in possession more often, and that’s because they didn’t have an outlet in midfield. Then, for Josh Dasilva’s goal, he was given the freedom of that part of the pitch, allowed to run at goal and bend in.
That would not have happened if Dewsbury-Hall had been there.
The second substitution problem was the lack of them. Across the Premier League this weekend, only two clubs used fewer than three substitutes: City and Wolves.
Both brought on just the solitary player, and in Wolves’ case it was slightly more understandable in that they only had one attacking player on the bench to call upon in a game they were chasing, with injuries causing an imbalance in their squad.
Asked why he didn’t make more changes, Rodgers explained that he felt his defence was in control and was well-organised, that Ndidi was doing an important job ahead of them, and that Maddison and Tielemans had the experience required to see the game out.
But then, in a radio interview, when asked where it went wrong in the final half-hour, Rodgers suggested “fatigue” as a problem.
This is probably the case. Players are never at their fittest in the first game of the season, and it was a warm day at the King Power Stadium.
Those tired legs and tired minds are evident in the stats. In the first half, City made 19 tackles and interceptions, but just seven in the second half.
In the first period, they made 37 ball recoveries versus 15 after the break.
Their pass completion rate dropped from 91 per cent to 81 per cent between the two halves, with misplaced City balls another reason outlined by Rodgers for Brentford’s comeback.
So the fatigue is there, but using it as an excuse doesn’t wash when Rodgers had the ability to change it.
Dennis Praet, an energetic player, could have provided a boost of intensity in place of Tielemans or Maddison.
Papy Mendy, while not as defen
sively strong as Ndidi, is much better at retaining the ball, which would have cut down the number of Brentford attacks.
Kelechi Iheanacho or Ayoze Perez could have provided more energy up front in place of Jamie Vardy, who was barely involved.
It is unlike Rodgers not to put faith in his squad.
There have been so many occasions where he has called upon those who do not regularly start and they have produced important performances for him.
And now every team can make five changes, it is something he will have to do.
When the opposition are swapping out half of their outfield players for fresh legs, it is going to make a
difference. Rodgers can’t stand idle.
It has been suggested that the lack of substitutions was some kind of protest over the lack of investment in the squad, with Rodgers silently indicating he does not have the right quality available to him.
But this is not a case of Harry Redknapp putting two goalkeepers on his bench to appeal to his board for transfer funds – Rodgers knows the situation City are in and his decisions in a game are not going to change the club’s stance on that.
This is the squad he has to work with this season and he needs to trust them.
With two extra substitutions available to every club, there is a greater scope for changing the course of a game late on.
If City and Rodgers don’t respond by getting extra energy on the pitch too, their good work early in games will be undone, as it was on Sunday. ■ The reason Brentford needed to make their changes to attempt a comeback was because of how much control City had.
In fact, the ball retention from Rodgers’ side was very impressive.
Such was their domination of possession in the first half, even with a considerable drop off in their pass completion in the second half, it still ranked very highly.
Overall, City completed 87.7 per cent of their passes, which was more than in any Premier League game they played last season, and is only bettered by two other matches – a 5-0 win over Sheffield United and a
3-0 win over Newcastle – during Rodgers’ tenure.
There may be an explanation for that. Without Harvey Barnes, they packed the team with midfielders, players renowned for their skill in keeping the ball.
But because Barnes was not there, penetrating the Brentford back-line and stretching the pitch, City struggled with chance creation.
Two of their three best chances were headers from set-pieces. There were not too many other occasions where they got inside the box.
They had 14 shots in total and the average distance from where they were struck was 22 yards.
In only three games last season was that figure higher.
That’s not too much of an issue when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is finding the bottom corner, and Youri Tielemans is coming within a few inches of doing so – the Belgian seeing an effort hit the post – but City are not going to score from range every week.
Keeping the ball stops the other team from creating chances. But City still need to learn how to be inventive in the final third themselves, especially when they don’t have Barnes causing problems.
It’s not often that the mood around a football club is quite so fragile on the opening day, and that’s why Sunday’s draw felt like a missed opportunity for City.
With the sun shining, the first game of a new campaign is supposed to bring unadulterated excitement.
The pre-season performances had helped spark that, but the final week of preparations saw two key players in Ricardo Pereira and Harvey Barnes injured, two more key players in Wesley Fofana and James Maddison targeted by wealthy clubs, and a club legend in Kasper Schmeichel leave without a proper goodbye.
On the opening day, the clouds of gloom are supposed to be well in the distance, only settling over the stadium after a run of poor performances and results.
But they feel quite close to the King Power Stadium at the moment.
For Rodgers, the job is to ensure that feeling does not seep into the training ground and his squad.
It may be difficult to keep the mood among the players high too when they see their team-mates suffer devastating injuries, and when there is a sense that important players may be keen on an exit.
As in most cases, the only remedy is winning matches. The picture at City would have felt a lot more rosy had they sealed all three points at the weekend.
It feels, more so than most seasons, that getting that first win will be very important.