Leicester City 2 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Date: Tuesday 1st March 2016 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Leicester:
7.5
WBA:
7.4
Foster 8.0, Dawson 7.2, McAuley 7.0, Olsson 6.0, Chester 6.7, Sessegnon 7.1 (Sandro, 93 5.3), Fletcher 7.1, Yacob 7.1, Gardner 7.9 (McClean, 0 5.6), Berahino 6.4, Rondón 8.0 (Anichebe, 92 5.4)
Unused subs: Myhill, Gamboa, Lambert, Pritchard
Manager: Tony Pulis 7.5
Scorers: Rondón (11), Gardner (50)
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear) 6.5
Attendance: 32,018   Home Fans 6.8   Away Fans 7.9

Brendan Clegg:

Another enjoyable game from Tony Pulis' Albion entertainers! What?

I thought we started well again, similar to Palace as we bravely pressed high up the pitch and for the first 20 were the better team, deservedly taking the lead through Rondon.

For the 2nd game in a row we played a decent throughball for Rondon and it resulted in a goal. It's only taken us 25 odd games to work out that if we play him balls on the floor or in behind instead of lumping them at him from 60 yards in every direction we might just have a player.

After about the first 20 Leicester stepped up a gear, getting after us and one or two of ours had a wobble. It started with Fletcher being robbed of possession when trying to keep the ball (something I have no problem with) and it seemed to give Fletcher, Olsson and to a lesser extent others the real jitters.

For the next 20 minutes we stopped trying to keep the ball and resorted to hoofing it and during this period Leicester scored the lucky deflection and could maybe have nicked another goal.

With around 5 minutes to go before half time it looked like we had weathered it and Flether began to set the tone for us again by keeping the ball, finding Rondon, Saido and Sess and we looked home and dry up to half time - probably the worst thing you can do against this Leicester team as at the wort possible time we were caught napping.

McAuley got caught too high up the pitch, Dawson didn't get tight enough to Albrighton to stop him coming back on his right foot to hit an inswinging cross (as he does), Olsson moved across to cover Vardy in McAuley's absence, Chester got caught between staying tight and marking Mahrez and ended up in no man's land and King arrived untracked to finish very well. It was a lovely goal but avoidable on our part.

Second half we started well again - Rondon in particular charging around pressing well with Sess picking up pieces.

Gardner then hit an unbelievable free kick inch-perfectly into the top corner which I thought we just about deserved.

From then on in we did begin to drop deeper and come under pressure but we still carried a threat on the break - it was another game where McManaman's introduction on 70 minutes would have been ideal to give us real threat on the counter, but we dug in and got a deserved point.

Overall our balance wasn't as great with Chester at left back therefore we were never as fluid as we were first half against Palace and as an attacking threat our left hand side was a write-off but we were still miles better than we have been for many games this season.

Man Utd without Yacob will be a challenge and it will be interesting to see what Pulis does - I fear Sandro doesn't have the fitness as a like-for-like replacement and is possibly even less mobile than Yacob. I'd be tempted to put the more mobile Evans in there, or maybe even drop Fletcher back as the deeper midfielder and give Pritchard a go, assuming Mozza isn't goign to make it.

  • Fozzy - 7 Typically unorthodox but effective game.
  • Dawson - 6 Did OK, quite good defensively.
  • McAuley - 7 Overall given the opposition he did well, a couple of errors though.
  • Olsson - 6 Had a terrible 20 minute spell midway through the first half but redeemed himself after the break and kept putting that noggin in the way.
  • Chester - 6 Kept going and kept his chin up against a tricky opponent, offered little on the ball but was solid enough.
  • Sess - 6 Didn't quite go for him but still showed flashes of quality.
  • Fletcher - 7 Another game where he tried to lead by example and keep the ball. Great pass for goal, looks so much better playing this way.
  • Yacob - 6 Did a decent spoiler job but the booking was inevitable.
  • Gardner - 7 A performance that typified his qualities; he works hard and has a great shot on him and he worked hard and hit a great shot. Extra mark for that free kick. Another benefitting from clearly trying to keep the ball and play sensible passes.
  • Saido - 6 Quieter but did his defensive jobs well and showed quality in patches.
  • Rondon - 7 Looked much more like the bully we saw in his first few games. His best showing in months and deserved his goal.
  • McClean - 5 Was effectively brought on as a line-blocker. Totally lost on the right.