The response to Leicester City’s 2-1 loss to Preston North End may seem overly negative given it’s only the second match of the season, but concerns will be mounting even for the most relaxed supporters.
Following a successful outing against Sheffield Wednesday last week and a Carabao Cup exit to League One side Huddersfield Town, Marti Cifuentes’ squad arrived at Deepdale aiming to secure a second consecutive Championship victory.
City held the upper hand for much of the match against Preston. They forced their opponents to resort to long balls to regain possession and dominated the ball, unlike their win over Wednesday.
However, despite the evident talent in their lineup—every starter having featured in the Premier League last season—Leicester failed to capitalize on their control, and Preston exploited the weaknesses within the Foxes’ team.
Paul Heckingbottom’s strategy was evident within the first 10 minutes. He aimed for his two forwards, Milutin Osmajic and Michael Smith, to be aggressive in their challenges and make lateral runs to unsettle City’s defense. Unfortunately for Leicester, it proved effective, providing a clear template for other Championship managers.
“From all of the things that we said could happen in terms of how they would play and attack, they did exactly that and we couldn’t control it,” Cifuentes admitted after the game. “[I’m] disappointed about both goals, [they were] definitely something that we should have done much better.
“When you start against a team like this at home, who start with energy, play in behind, we knew that would be key, the runs from Osmajic and the No.8 behind, we spoke about how to defend those.”
The opening goal, scored after just seven minutes, came from only two passes, and it wasn’t the first time Preston attempted to thread a long ball between either the left-back and centre-back or behind the full-back. Daniel Iversen’s quick roll-out to Pol Valentin initiated the move, and 10 seconds later, the ball was in the net.
Three touches were enough to take the lead, a goal Cifuentes was displeased with. City’s issue was their inability to position enough players to block the player launching these long balls. Below, Jordan Ayew is on the left wing due to Stephy Mavididi’s prior run, but Bilal El Khannouss’ positioning is crucial.
Above, the Moroccan (circled player at the bottom) is alongside Boubakary Soumare, deeper than Cifuentes would prefer when his team is out of possession. His placement means there isn’t the four-man press in the final third that was effective against Fiorentina in the last pre-season match.
The defensive line is high, and Luke Thomas fails to anticipate the ball, giving Alfie Devine the edge. The goal was ultimately Jakub Stolarczyk’s fault for rushing out at the wrong moment, but the warning signs were clear for Leicester.
In the second half, Preston adjusted their approach and targeted James Justin down the right. Andrew Hughes’ ball down the line left Justin struggling and outpaced by the impressive Thierry Small, who reached the ball inside City’s penalty area, with Thomas doing well to disrupt Osmajic’s effort.
When Jeremy Monga equalized with over 20 minutes remaining, the traveling Foxes behind Iversen’s goal likely sensed a potential winner. But Leicester’s defensive vulnerabilities let them down again.
“Unfortunately our counter-press wasn’t good enough in transitions, especially in the second goal, it was poor,” Cifuentes said of Preston’s winner. “You need to always have that balance when you attack a deep block and how many players you commit, but at the same time, how ready are you to prevent a counter. That was a big part in both goals.
“We didn’t deal well with their counters. It’s part of the game that you will concede them [counters], it’s impossible for 95 minutes to avoid one of those long passes/channel balls, sometimes they will connect but it happened too often and that’s mainly because we didn’t attack positionally with the quality we have.”
The winning goal stemmed from Harry Winks losing possession carelessly on the edge of Preston’s box. At that moment, centre-back Wout Faes had failed in his press and was about 10 yards outside Preston’s box. One pass later, Osmajic was one-v-two against Jannik Vestergaard and Caleb Okoli at the halfway line.
His pass to Small, who had ample space due to Abdul Fatawu’s inclination to move inside the box as the attacking wing-back, allowed the home side to threaten City. By the time Okoli and Boubakary Soumare had both, inadequately, closed Small down, Osmajic had outrun Vestergaard, with Hamza Choudhury too slow to catch the striker and Faes too far from the play.
In City’s defense, the ball from the left wing-back was perfectly placed for Osmajic to convert, but Vestergaard’s defending was substandard. He glances at the centre-forward twice but fails to track his run into the box.
Perhaps the most exasperating sight for fans is the all-too-familiar image of Faes and Vestergaard reacting to a goal with their arms outstretched.
Before the final whistle, another long ball created a clear opportunity, this one the most straightforward. After Jordan Ayew was dispossessed by Smith, Stefan Thordarson’s long pass forward left Vestergaard chasing Osmajic’s shadow before Stolarczyk made a strong low save.
Cifuentes now has a few days on the training ground to address his team’s defensive issues. There are also concerning signs to tackle in attack.
Charlton have deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation in their first two league matches, with a lone striker supported by three attackers, and Nathan Jones will know one way to exploit City when they visit The Valley this weekend.
While there has been frustration following the match, it’s worth noting there’s still plenty of football to be played. Cifuentes is relatively new to the role and lacked sufficient pre-season preparation time.
History also offers perspective, with several examples of teams starting slowly before achieving promotion. Recently, Burnley failed to win in four of their first five games under Vincent Kompany and went on to amass 101 points.
In 2021, Norwich lost two and drew one of their first four games before finishing with 97 points. In 2017, Newcastle, under Rafa Benitez, dropped their first two Championship matches before winning the league.