From 12 yards out in the first half at Crystal Palace, Kelechi Iheanacho had not only the opportunity to hand Leicester the lead but also sway the tone of this article one way or the other.
Of course, the former was of primary concern – the latter a matter which will pass him by – but as Vicente Guaita’s right hand rose to keep out Iheanacho’s penalty, it was clear Leicester fans would have been looking at their bench and wondering what might have been.
A second game in three days prompted Brendan Rodgers to make seven changes, some enforced, others optional. While James Maddison and Wesley Fofana were absent from the matchday squad, both Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans were named among the substitutes – suggesting whatever niggles they may be carrying were not serious enough to keep them out entirely.
Vardy is Leicester’s main penalty taker – he has scored 26 of his 31 top-flight spot-kicks overall – Tielemans his second in command, and between them the pair had converted eight of a league-high nine penalties awarded to the Foxes in the Premier League this season.
It was not a perfect record heading to Selhurst Park, but still an impressive conversion rate which only Liverpool can better among the clubs to have been awarded five or more penalties so far this season.
Vardy and Tielemans could only watch on as that rate declined to 80 per cent, eight scored, two misses, when Iheanacho – starting just his second league game of the campaign – saw his penalty expertly saved. It was the best chance of a first half which Leicester dominated, though they ultimately lacked the finishing touch which would have almost certainly been supplied by Vardy.
Six of their nine shots were off target, and Leicester were duly punished for their wayward accuracy when Wilfried Zaha scored the opener with Palace’s first attempt on target after 58 minutes.
By that point, Tielemans – who had started every league game this season before Monday – was called upon to replace the yellow-carded Hamza Choudhury, and just after the hour mark manager Brendan Rodgers could be seen whispering instructions to Vardy ahead of the striker’s substitution.
With Vardy nursing a groin injury, it was a change Rodgers would have hoped he could have avoided, but in chasing the game he was left with no choice but to bring him on with 25 minutes remaining.
In the end it was not Vardy but Harvey Barnes who rescued a point for Leicester when scoring his eight goal of the season. Not an unlikely saviour, but still a recognisable one given the 23-year-old has started all but four league games this season.
Barnes’ vital contribution will delight Rodgers, but in what was their final game of 2020, the draw at Palace – a side who lost 7-0 to Liverpool then 3-0 at Aston Villa on Boxing Day – was a reminder of the difficulties which await Leicester in the New Year, what with an FA Cup campaign adding to their exploits in the Premier League and also the Europa League knockout stages.
Rotation will be necessary if Leicester want to continue their push for Champions League football via both the Premier League and Europa League routes, but in this first glimpse of what 2021 could bring it appears rotating is a luxury not befitting of their squad.
For the more expensively-assembled squads around them at the top of the league, a goal Rodgers may still dare to chase, rotation means big names replacing big names, but in Leicester’s instance it only exploits their shortcomings – one compounded by Ayoze Perez’s late miss when others on the pitch may have tucked that opportunity away.
And so, in the end it was a point, and not quite an experiment given the demands of playing twice in quick succession, but the result will make Rodgers think twice about rotating so freely in the future, particularly up front as they ended with just three shots on target from 17 attempts.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/38IbVMo
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