Leicester City utilized a 4-3-3 formation in both the first and second halves of this match, but used a completely different eleven in both halves.
Brendan Rodgers brought on more first team players in the first half with Fofana, Ricardo, Dewsbury-Hall, Choudhury, Soumare, Daka, Barnes all starting. On 30 minutes Ricrdo stole the ball on the touchline and Daka slotted the ball from midfield to the advancing Barnes, who in a one on two situation put the ball into the goal for the go-ahead point. Northamptonshire hit back a couple of minutes later when No.7 Kairo Mitchell, who was having a great game, had a beautiful shot parried away on 41 minutes, but the next corner was taken when the Leicester City keeper didn't really catch the ball and added a second to tie the game at 1-1.
Harvey Barnes' goal (Photo credit: lcfc.com)
There were many highlights in the first half, with youngster Callum Wright, who started on the right side of the pitch, putting in an excellent performance, and his shot from the edge of the box in the 43rd minute was one of the most opportune moments of the day for Leicester City to add one more point to their tally. He also played well with Ricardo and created a few good attacking moments.
Leicester City brought on a new set of players for the second half, all but Iheanacho.
The second half of the game, the young Foxes controlled more time in possession. In the second half, the young Foxes controlled more time of possession, but it was mostly midfield possession and backfield conduction, less direct threat to the Northshire defense. The fullbacks and wingbacks tested a number of direct ground balls, but either the power was not well defined, or the forward players fell into the opponent's offside trap, resulting in the first shot on goal in the second half until the 83rd minute. The defense was also often threatened by the opponent's rapid attack and defense transition, Northshire attacked the use of the width of the field than Leicester City, especially the right half of Iestyn Hughes's defense repeatedly in the sideline gaps and breakthroughs, which almost led to a goal. In the end, Leicester City still lost on the set-piece. In the second half, Northshire presented two set-pieces, and finally succeeded in creating a threatening shot, and the second one even broke the goal with a header, and finally lost 1:2 in their own home field to this veteran team who is now in the National League of the English soccer.
Even though they lost in the end, the energy of the young players was clearly felt at the beginning of the second half, and they pressed the ball very aggressively. Right back Iestyn Hughes had a couple of flaws in defense, but he did a good job in offense, often boldly testing the direct ball. In the 84th minute, he intercepted the opponent's pass from the sideline, crossed the midfield, and then passed a long ball directly to Iheanacho, who was outside the penalty area. Although his final shot hit the post, it showed that the youngster's vision of passing was quite wide.
Iestyn Hughes (Photo credit: lcfc.com)
This was only the first of the pre-season friendlies, Rodgers tested a lot of players, and many other players are not yet in their best condition, the nature of the friendlies is to let the players return to their normal rhythm through the competition. However, the details of the game can still be seen in many of Leicester City's tactical deficiencies, including more possession but has not been the essence of the threatening power of the goal and set-piece defense of these problems that existed last season, these are Rodgers have to deal with the problem as soon as possible.
