“When we play desperate,” Claudio Ranieri said, “that is our way,” and rather like the manager’s idiosyncratic English, one feels this may be about as good it will get for Leicester City. In other words, if they spend too much time trying to improve their defensive record after conceding nine goals in six games, they might lose some of the qualities which have seen them score 13 and left them the only team in the Premier League yet to be defeated.
The odds are that record will not last much longer if they keep being required to come back from two goals down, as they have in their past two matches. Equally, however, the pragmatic Ranieri seems to have accepted this group of players have a method of playing which, if slightly frantic, is working for them.
“For me it’s just important to carry on this moment – everything is good,” the Italian said. “It’s important to continue to play like this. For this reason I told to the players at half-time: ‘OK, we are losing, but it’s finished, and now we start to play. Because they are desperate and they score two goals; now we must be more desperate than them.
“Today we conceded too many, we made too many mistakes when we want to make transaction, maybe to be very fast. Fast, yes, but also calm, because we can make mistakes when we want to restart the action. It’s very important to pass the ball well. Or if you pass badly, it’s much better to lose the ball forward.”
Mistakes they made on Saturday, none more so than the captain, Wes Morgan, whose hopelessly miskicked attempted back-pass allowed Jon Walters in to put Stoke two ahead. The Potters’ first had been brilliantly made by Marko Arnautovic, who turned Ritchie De Laet inside out before releasing a lovely pass to put Bojan Krkic through.
That, as Stoke’s manager, Mark Hughes, pointed out, should have been that but shortly after the break Arnautovic gave the Foxes a sniff by clumsily fouling Danny Drinkwater, before the irrepressible Jamie Vardy steered Leonardo Ulloa’s flick-on past Jack Butland in the Stoke goal.
Having complained about fouls not being given on Walters in the passage of play preceding Vardy’s equaliser, Hughes acknowledged Leicester’s merits.
“They have a lot of energy, they have a lot of pace in wide areas, they play a certain way, they have good energy up top, Vardy will chase lost causes and they play to their strengths,” he said. “If you give them any inclination they might still be in the game, they’ll keep going, which is credit to them.”
Hughes, despite his disappointment at once again failing to record a first win of the season, had more to be pleased about than otherwise. Krkic’s return after an eight-month injury absence brought a creative zest to his side which had been lacking and Stoke look to have goals in them with Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri alongside the Spaniard and behind a striker, on Saturday Walters.
“It’s the first time they’ve played together, as a three, and we want to get to a point when they’re firing all cylinders,” Hughes said. “In the meantime we have got to win games and pick up points and we envisage we will do.”
Man of the match N’Golo Kanté (Leicester City)
