Leicester City 3 Leeds United 1

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It’s hard to be too critical of the performance tonight, after all we know that this was in essence a second XI. It’s still a bit disappointing though that we fought so hard and yet, through shortcomings in several of the players on show, weren’t able to capitalise on a fine goal by Hernandez and beat what was not actually a very good Leicester side. The 1st XI would have won this game but we all understand that promotion is more important and if resting the main players tonight means they’ll be up and at it on Friday night then obviously we’ve done the right thing.

The class shown by Hernandez tonight was not replicated by many of his team mates. The likes of Grot and Cibicki don’t appear to offer much and I’d be surprised if we see much of either of them for the rest of the season. Kemar Roofe once again ran his socks off but I’m starting to think that actually, he’s not equipped at the level we need either. He constantly looks short of a yard of pace. Then there’s Sacko! What are we to do with him? He finds himself in promising situations so often and yet rarely seems to do the right thing! I know he’s young but once again, certainly for this season, I can’t see him offering us much. Felix Wiedwald also looks likely to spend the rest of the season on the bench as, compared with the bravery and presence we’ve seen from Andy Lonergan in the last couple of games, Felix just doesn’t seem to come up to scratch. Pablo and Luke Ayling of course will have a part to play and looked head and shoulders above the rest whilst Kalvin Phillips , though not the complete player, offers enough each game to merit his place. I like the look of Conor Shaughnessy too and am convinced he’ll mature into a fine player.  Anita, Pontus of course and even Mateusz Klich will I’m sure have a role to play throughout the season as well.

So tonight was another chance to see the second string players just to see once again what they can offer but I don’t think we learned anything we didn’t already know. That means that, in terms of the number of players we have who can help us win Championship games we don’t actually have that many! Certainly up front we are very thin indeed and let’s hope that PM Lasogga doesn’t get injured this side of the next transfer window as I didn’t see anyone who can fill that role successfully if he does. Roofe at a push maybe plays that role better than he does out wide.

On we go then, Friday night I’d guess will see the same side that we saw demolish Bristol with Anita filling in at left back in place of the suspended Berardi. Like Bristol, we expect the Blades to be a tough opponent, so let’s hope, like Bristol they fail to cope with our first XI.

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