Leicester Can Concentrate on the League

Article by Jonathan Smith

There are some sayings that are used regularly when talking about football. The one most commonly used having bowed out of a cup competition is ‘now we can concentrate on the league’. In Leicester City’s case, you could be forgiven for using that one this time.

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City have worked hard to climb to the top of the Championship and have won their last four league games. Some may have seen a third round FA Cup tie against Stoke City as an unwanted distraction; others will have relished the opportunity to dump a Premier League side out of the competition. One thing that can’t be doubted is Leicester City supporters’ enthusiasm for FA Cup away days. The Foxes faithful travel well in the league but the number of followers is even more impressive when it comes to playing in one of the most famous football cup competitions in the world. There were around 4,000 present on Saturday; completely filling the stand that houses away supporters at the Britannia Stadium. There was a statistic on the official Leicester City Twitter that said 26,172 Foxes fans have attended the last five away FA Cup ties; an average of over 5,000 per game.

It was difficult to tell how seriously Nigel Pearson would take the fixture. He had said that the league was his main priority, following the 3-1 victory over Millwall on New Year’s day, but had then come out in his pre-match press conference and sounded a bit more passionate about the FA Cup. He was possibly trying to avoid receiving the same kind of criticism that Paul Lambert had for demeaning the importance of the competition. Pearson did decide to make five changes for the game but most of the players who came into the side are regular starters for City. Paul Konchesky and Ritchie de Laet returned to the back four, enabling Wes Morgan and Liam Moore to have a rest. Jamie Vardy returned having served his one match suspension and was partnered up front by Jeffrey Schlupp who scored his first goal of the season in the Millwall match. The other change was a return of Matty James to the midfield. This meant that Lloyd Dyer and David Nugent were given a much needed break and Danny Drinkwater wasn’t included in the squad at all. It was a continuation of Pearson’s squad management policy that has served him so well this season. He will be well aware that players like Drinkwater have played almost every minute of every game so far this season so to have been able to let him play just 10 minutes in the last two fixtures will hopefully keep him fresh for Friday’s top of the table clash with local rivals Derby County.

City lined up with three in midfield and Anthony Knockaert playing behind the front two. The Frenchman usually operates from the right-hand side but with Dyer on the bench, a change of system was required. Leicester didn’t show too much in the first half and went in at half time 1-0 down. Kenwyne Jones grabbed the opening goal for the hosts after 16 minutes. Stoke’s lead was doubled ten minutes into the second half. It was Charlie Adam’s fifth goal of the season and it seemed to have sealed a place in the fourth round for the Potters but a double change by Leicester with 22 minutes left to play gave the visitors hope of a comeback. Dyer and Nugent entered the field of play and it was Nugent who got one back for City ten minutes later. Unfortunately, a second goal didn’t follow and Leicester were out of the cup at the third round stage. In a way, being knocked out was preferable to having to play a replay as the fixtures would soon start piling up for City’s small squad.

Attention can now return to the league campaign where Leicester have got themselves into a promising position. Pearson will know that he has just 22 more games to navigate if he is to complete the job he started back in 2008 in League One.

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