Chelsea 1-0 Leicester: Two players who let the side down & two who shone | OneFootball

The King Power travellers fell to a 1-0 defeat to home side Chelsea as Ruud van Nistelrooy trialled a new system with some players included we had been crying out for. A 1-0 defeat is not particularly horrendous versus such a good side, so should be seen as promising once the Foxes get out of their tough run of fixtures.

Nevertheless, there were still a couple players who simply did not do themselves any favours, or caused problems for the side. Be that giving the ball away, conceding too many fouls, or simply playing out of position too frequently, possession was hard for Leicester to maintain with these players. That being said, there was at least two players who deserve a special mention for doing everything they could.

Two Leicester City players who let us down

The basic foundational principles of football are space exploitation and ball possession. A team has to have the ball as undisputed as possible to impose their vision of how the game ought to be played on the opposition, as well as create and shift around space from which technical players have the time to move the ball across the pitch. Any player that harms these principles is a liability.

Against Chelsea, there were two players which I felt did not contribute much to either and actively harmed both. Namely, Patson Daka and Victor Kristiansen. The former for a poor use of possession, the latter for poor use of space. I will briefly detail each.

For the Zambian international, his role in Nistelrooy’s team was to be a creative forward that can collect the ball deeper, progress it forward, and support Jamie Vardy - who has too often been alone this season - in stretching the defence. Naturally, Daka ought to be well-suited to this role: he likes to come deep to get involved, he likes to run with the ball at his feet, and he links up well with teammates.

However, this is not what we saw. The Foxes were wasteful when they had possession with their forward line (apart from Bilal el Khannouss): Daka often collecting the ball from a midfielder or long ball from defence and immediately running into the opposition defence rather than hold it up or progress out wide. This focus on the centre meant Chelsea had a narrow and compact defence surrounding Vardy and excessive pressure quickly applied to the Zambian.

This is reflected in the number of times Daka took on the opposition and gave possession away. Equally offensive to the ‘beautiful game’ was his lack of touches despite his role, the number of times the player was simply dribbled past by a defender breaking our press without any attempt to put in a tackle or intercept a pass, and a lack of pressure the player should have been applying on defenders to give the English striker opportunities from wayward rushed passes. Overall, a sad display.

Meanwhile, the Danish fullback played in a wing-back position on the left of defence. As a naturally left-footed left-back with Luke Thomas behind him as a left-sided centre-back, the role should be obvious: support the defence by dropping back to collect the ball and rush it forward either by carrying it up the wing or passing it up the wing, while also progressing forward into a winger position to support el Khannouss. Movement and space exploitation.

Not just did Kristiansen barely ever attempt to carry the ball forward and support the defence, the player never made a tackle, barely touched the ball, gave possession away disproportionately, was dribbled past by wingers - bearing in mind there is also another left-back behind him to support - and to top it all off, Kristiansen conceded a penalty. As a wing-back, Nistelrooy ought to have - and probably did - instructed the Dane to move back and forth as required to stretch and create space. This was an abject failure.

Two players who shone

I think there are two players who performed well, one deserving of remaining in the senior line-up and one who is already in the starting XI but obviously is irreplaceable. Namely, Thomas and Mads Hermansen.

Hermansen is undeniably our most vital asset in any attempt Leicester City might have in retaining Premier League status come the end of the campaign. Only conceding one goal against London giants Chelsea, saving seven shots with one of those being a penalty, all while being more involved and more under pressure than our strikers and left wing-back. Hermansen did exactly the job the player had to do for the Foxes.

Thomas however has been mostly ostercised by the Dutch head coach up until this fixture. After finally altering the system to a back three with a solid defensive core and a passionate fullback on one side, Nistelrooy has weighed in on the success of bringing Luke Thomas into the side in reducing the needless quantity of goals the team were conceding.

The English fullback played as left centre-back, taking on a role of constant pressure, incessant involvement, and requiring a great level of determination to pile the pressure on and put in a challenge. Thomas did just that.

With more touches than most our players, a majority of his challenges won, plenty of defensive contributions both in midfield and deep in our box, and plenty of safe possession retaining passes to boot. Luke Thomas did what was expected: put opponents under pressure, try to win the ball, and then try to hold onto the ball. If the Leicester academy graduate had the right support on the left flank from a wing-back who moved smartly, we could have seen some joy on that flank.

These are the kind of performances that will help Leicester City create momentum, stop dropping three points every game, and give the outsiders an outside glimmer of hope to remotely challenge for Premier League survival. This and the return of players like Ricardo Pereira could be a turning point if Ruud van Nistelrooy does not revert back to what was not working.