Player ratings vs. Tottenham

A case of "there's nothing new under the sun" at the King Power stadium yesterday. Or at least, there's nothing new under the manager.

Here are my ratings:

Schmeichel: 6 - Didn't really get the chance to do much other than pick the ball out of the back of the net. Some highly questions pieces of distribution however.
Ricardo: 7 - Lively down the right hand side, combining well with Gray in the first half and Albrighton toward the end. Probably needs to bulk up a bit defensively though as he looks like he can be bullied.
Morgan: 8 - Made a number of important interceptions and challenges. Didn't have Spurs' first choice front line to deal with but kept the opposition at bay. My choice for our MOTM.
Evans: 7 - Makes a decent partnership with Morgan and was generally solid. Improving on the ball.
Chilwell: 7 - Not his most influential game but still an effective part of the team in both defence and attack.
Gray: 6 - Looked to have the beating of Davies but didn't take him on enough. Still the same old problem of requiring end product, although he is getting involved in games more these days.
Ndidi: 7 - Better game than recently as he got through plenty of action across the midfield. Shooting not up to standard though.
Iborra: 6 - Good in the first half an hour and his ability on the ball helped us be more effective at launching attacks, even if we couldn't turn those attacks into actual chances. Waned as the match went on.
Mendy: 5 - His early booking caused a problem and stifled his normal style. I believe he would have been closer to Son for the first Spurs goal had he not been on a tightrope.
Maddison: 6 - Got into some useful positions but I'd like to start seeing some of his attempted through balls actually get through.
Iheanacho: 5 - Doing what many unconfident players do and playing the ball backwards rather than trusting his ability and really testing the opposing defenders. Often quite good at build-up play in the middle third but as soon as he gets near the box he looks to play it safe. That combined with the ironic cheering when he got subbed yesterday make a big problem, that can only be solved by him giving it his absolute all on the pitch time after time, almost in an Ade Akinbiyi kind of way but hopefully with better results. Whether he has the capacity to do that, I don't know. Needs some skilful managing from here.

Albrighton: 6 - Had some success as the match went on but took a little while to get into it.
Ghezzal: 6 - Similar to Albrighton, came into the match only when Spurs had taken their foot off the gas.
Okazaki: 7 - Provided good impetus. Making a strong case for starting with Vardy once both are ready.


There have to be two big talking points from our point of view yesterday. The first one is the initial tactics, playing a 4-5-1 and looking to contain the opposition. In a sense it worked for a while, the first half was mostly two teams cancelling each other out with the occasional foray forward for each threatening to open gaps but leading to nothing. However, as the half went on it became clear that Spurs were starting to win the tactical battle and eventually we dropped deep enough and gave enough openings for them to make one count. It was frustrating for that to happen just before half time, but each minute that went by after the half-hour it looked more likely. Were we too defensive? Should we have pressed Spurs more? We don't press at all under Puel anyway, so maybe that was a missed opportunity as neither team really started quickly.

The second talking point has to be the bizarre substitution at around 55 minutes. There was nothing per se wrong about bringing on either Albrighton or Ghezzal to change the match, but hauling off our most influential midfield passer in Iborra and - bafflingly - our striker in Iheanacho makes it very hard to defend. At 1-0 down, we revert to having no strikers on the pitch. Gray gets put up front - he hasn't really got a clue what he's doing there an yesterday was no different - while we still have a recognised striker on the bench. It was like we were protecting a 1-0 loss, which we quickly lost anyway when Morgan and Evans were left to mark about 4 players on their own with nobody getting back to help.

I often feel that Puel tries to outsmart himself with these substitutions, making overcomplicated changes that neither players nor fans understand. A far more sensible thing to do at 55 minutes might have been to hook Mendy (on a yellow card and a defensive midfielder) for one of Albrighton, Ghezal or Okazaki, try to push up the pitch a bit more, change shape and play more expansively. Instead we end up with 6 midfielders on the pitch with often nobody in the box because Gray doesn't train in that position to be there. Sometimes the KISS acronym has to come into play: Keep It Simple, Stupid.