HARVEY WALL BANGER!
Barnes leaves Leeds shaken... but stirred too as ‘fighting spirit’ gets Marsch merry
JESSE MARSCH used a basketball reference to illustrate how pleased he was – despite the new Leeds boss getting slam-dunked here by Harvey Barnes.
Marcelo Bielsa’s American replacement suffered defeat in his first match, as Leicester winger Barnes served up a big three-pointer by maintaining his hot scoring streak against the Whites.
Barnes marked his 100th appearance for the Foxes with a lovely finish midway through the second half – making it a goal in each of his last five appearances against the Yorkshire side. But there was no doubt who was the busier of the two keepers as Leicester’s Kasper Schmeichel produced a string of saves to provide the platform for his side’s second clean sheet inside five days.
Leeds’ performance was far removed from last week’s limp surrender against Tottenham, and former RB Leipzig boss Marsch reckons survival will not be a problem if the same effort is repeated between now and the end of the season.
He said: “Maybe it’s the American in me, but I’ve learnt that sometimes our sport isn’t the fairest.
“It’s not like basketball where you keep scoring points and the better team begins to emerge.
“So, even though we are disappointed with the result, I’m very positive. I’m pleased with every single performance from every single guy. They run and fight for each other so much.
“They have a desire to fight for the fans and each other. I need to feed them the right information. I want them to know how strong that was, how good that was.
“This was a step in the right direction.”
Marsch’s men did put one horrible statistic right.
It was the first time in six outings that they hadn’t been two goals adrift by the halfway stage. In fact, the visitors had strong claims to being ahead on chances at least. Daniel James posted their first shot inside the opening 90 seconds. Then Schmeichel saved from
o and centre-half Caglar Soyuncu threw himself at Junior Firpo to he defender’s close-range effort. r the break, Schmeichel pawed a Rodrigo header clear and blocked from Raphinha as the visitors dominated.
However, Marsch was not able to eradicate all his new charge’s failings at the first attempt. Leicester had few chances, but their goal was well worked and came after a period of Leeds domination.
Barnes played a quick giveand-go with substitute Kelechi Iheanacho and fired home first time, across Illan Meslier with his right foot. Continuing the USA theme of the day, the scorer said afterwards: “We made it like a basketball game, and that only made it tougher.”
Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers (left) had been coming under pressure recently as Leicester slipped into the bottom half of the Premier League table.
But thanks to a midweek victory at
Burnley and this triumph, growing concerns about relegation have been eased.
Rodgers said: “It was a great win for us – especially after having a tough game in midweek – we knew we were going to have to dig in.
“Kasper made three saves with his feet and a couple from corners. But when we worked the ball into the right areas, we were a threat too.”