At full-time, Harry Winks and Hamza Choudhury were in deep discussion, presumably reflecting and dissecting how Leicester City had not departed with victory.
Thankfully, they had a manager who very succinctly encapsulated the contest for them. Branding the team’s display “arrogant”, Marti Cifuentes did not hold back. It was the most severe he has been in his City reign.
While harsh, it didn’t feel unwarranted. It felt like an accurate portrayal of how the match unfolded. City had considered themselves to be in control, such was their command of possession and territory, and they assumed they could stroll to three points.
Cifuentes termed it “fake control”. City projected the image of a side in command, but neither the scoreline nor the calibre of chances backed it up.
Arrogance is perhaps the ugliest trait for the team to exhibit. They are in the Championship for a reason. They’re not above this division. They cannot coast to 1-0 triumphs.
Perhaps because the opening hour of the game had mirrored so much of a match under Enzo Maresca, the players slipped into a mindset where they imagined they were three goals clear, as they often could be under the Italian.
But they’re not as strong a team now, or at least there’s been little evidence over the first two months that they are. They’ve now gone four games without success. They never did that under Maresca, nor under Nigel Pearson in 2013-14.
Cifuentes had given them all of the guidance they required as well. He said he instructed the players at half-time that they were to keep pushing, but even if he hadn’t, his mentality was obvious from his arrival.
In his very first interview, he said he wanted his side to keep pushing for more goals, no matter the scoreline.
It was not a principle that was visible at all on Tuesday night, but neither are they words that have been carried out at any stage this season. City are yet to score three goals in a single game under Cifuentes. While their highest expected goals tally in a game is 2.5, against Sheffield Wednesday on the opening day, their next best is just 1.2, against Coventry.
Because of the character of their matches this campaign, this “arrogance” is a first. There’s been plenty of grit shown in other fixtures, but perhaps because there had to be.
This was only the second time this season City have gone in at half-time with an advantage to defend. It was the first time this season they’ve lost a second half.
Perhaps then it was a lesson that needed to be absorbed. That they’ve been punished so decisively should mean it lingers in the players’ minds the next time they’re in “fake control”.
What Cifuentes knows he got wrong
However, Cifuentes was not so arrogant as to free himself of fault. In the same breath he said he was let down with the impact of the substitutes, he admitted he was disappointed in himself, and perhaps the two are related.
None of the second-half replacements improved the team. When Oliver Skipp and Stephy Mavididi entered, City began to lose control. When Jordan Ayew and Julian Carranza were introduced in search of a winner, the shape had completely broken down, and City did not look like scoring.
“In the previous games, the bench impact was always very good so we finished better than what we started,” Cifuentes said. “Today was the opposite.
“We felt with Bobby (De Cordova-Reid), it was his first start for many months and he was feeling really tired himself. At that moment, he felt very tired, the same with Jez (Monga).
“We wanted to have JJ (Jordan James) higher up the pitch and push with new legs with Julian and Jordan, but unfortunately it’s one of those days where perhaps we didn’t connect well.
“I didn’t make the right decisions. Football is a complex game because some small adjustments can change the development of the game.”
It’s hard to challenge the reasons for taking players off. De Cordova-Reid was tiring, and while Monga wasn’t noticeably, Mavididi was a strong option to have from the bench.
Altering the structure of the midfield was costly. Skipp, brought on to inject energy, didn’t influence the contest at all.
Could Ricardo Pereira have come on and featured instead? It’s reasonable that he was left out from the start to protect his hamstrings, but he must have been capable of playing 20 minutes in midfield, and that would have been a better chance of maintaining the quality of City’s play.
Wrexham have a solid depth to their squad, introducing their record signing to score the equaliser, but City’s squad remains far stronger in depth.
With the resources available, City shouldn’t deteriorate so evidently when they make changes.
How four changes impacted team performance
The four alterations made by Cifuentes to the starting line-up had a clear influence on how City played. Until the substitutes at least, it was far more akin to their style of play under Maresca.
The full-backs have usually been permitted to push forward under Cifuentes, but Choudhury seemed to be under strict orders to drift inside and sit at the base of midfield with Winks.
Then, James and De Cordova-Reid played as twin number eights, as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfred Ndidi did two seasons ago.
In Patson Daka, City had a striker who was not asked to be as involved in the build-up, and so was able to pose a bigger danger inside the area.
Those personnel adjustments shaped how City played. They smoothly completed more passes than in any other fixture this season, partly because they kept it short, playing fewer long balls than in other games, but also because they moved it more rapidly.
It wasn’t flawless, of course. While it was their best game for progressive passes and passes into the final third, it was only their fifth-best for completed passes and crosses into the box.
But with how the first half unfolded, it certainly felt like there was greater potential for City to create a threat, even if it did not materialise.
Because it was Daka rather than Ayew leading the line, they were able to fizz low balls across the six-yard box, with the Zambian twice coming close to poking in.
When the slick interchanges of passes around the penalty area clicked, it really worked. The goal City scored was one of their best of the campaign.
But come the second half, those opportunities dried up. Even in the opening 15 minutes of the second period, when City were on top, there were no clear chances.
It gives Cifuentes plenty to consider as he now turns to Swansea on Saturday. Eight games into the season, and City still haven’t delivered an attacking display with rhythm and openings that inspires confidence in them scoring every game.
Midfield trio provide biggest positive
Seeing De Cordova-Reid operate from an inside position so comfortably, linking really well with Monga and the forwards around him, it raised eyebrows as to why Steve Cooper and Ruud van Nistelrooy ever considered him better as a winger.
The midfield trio of the Jamaican, goalscorer James and orchestrator Winks were the big positive of the evening.
They dovetailed well, James and De Cordova-Reid positioning themselves to be consistently found by Winks’ line-splitting passes.
Given the freedom to move forward and back and roam where he wanted in the final third seemed to aid James too, who produced his finest game yet.
For a debut outing as a trio, it was encouraging. It would be interesting to see it again and observe if their understanding improves further.
Championship on course for tightest promotion race
If Coventry fail to win on Wednesday night, then second place in the Championship will have 14 points after eight matches.
That’s low. It’s difficult to trace records of when it was last that low after eight games. Second place had 15 points after eight games in 1989-90, and that was the last time the automatic promotion pace was under two points per match.
Even if Coventry win and climb to second on 16 points, it’s not a particularly high tally. When City were in the Championship two years ago, Ipswich sat second with 21 points after eight fixtures.
The early signs are that this may be one of the closest Championship seasons ever. City have drawn four games in a row and yet have slipped just one place in the table since that run began. They’re still three points ahead of Ipswich and Southampton.
City didn’t go four games without a win in either of their last two promotion campaigns, but maybe this is the year they can manage it and still secure promotion.