I think having Okazaki chasing down Saturday kept Vardy fresher, he was outpacing their defenders for the full 90 minutes because he hadn't used as much energy during the match, and was able to lean on the last man alot more. We basically played 4-4-1-1, but this allowed Mahrez to tear PVA apart and gave Albrighton more time to pick a cross. I said to dad before we got to the match, Albrighton will have the most assists this season
Bad defending all round really. Both of their goals came after a few uncharacteristic mistakes. Huth for the first and Schmeichel for the second. Although they couldn't live with our wingers. Mahrez was just unplayable.
Not good defending by either side tbh, though you could say that our defence switched off when we went in 3-0 up at half time. We hadn't played with a back 4 since our terrible run last season, so im not overly surprised that we conceded, we'll let the tinkerman do his stuff and see if he can settle on a back 4, or 3 depending on the formation. It was a good result seeming i was sceptical about the formation/team announced at the start of the game, and seeming that this was the same team that got us promoted from the championship 2 seasons ago bar 3 (Huth, Okazaki, Albrighton), im glad we got the result. We are both likely to be down near the bottom at the end of the season, so i see this as the first "6-pointer" won, next one will probably be against Bournemouth, i hope we don't offer them too much respect.
It was the sort of match that last season we could have been on Sunderland's end of. Reminded me a bit of QPR, Spurs and Arsenal away. It's nice to see us on the right end of a high-scoring match, but I do hope we sort out the defensive fragility (I think once Morgan and Benalouane are match fit we'll be better) as that was a key part of our run last season. There were a few games at the end of last season where we came out of the blocks really fast, scored early, and then sat back and defended (Newcastle and Southampton at home were good examples), which is what we should be looking to do, however I'm not too worried as a team that can score as readily as we do will always have a good chance. Always great to see Vardy score!
