Encouraged by the fact that we didn't just cave against Leicester after not scoring in the first hour. Since the start of the 19-20 season I've lost count of how many away games we've had where we've crumbled and run out of ideas simply because we've not put our first few chances away. It even happened at Spurs a few weeks ago. It was getting to the point where we basically had to score in the first half if we wanted to stand a chance of coming away with three points.
I know he has his detractors already (ahem), but I think Grealish had a lot to do with how we always kept quietly simmering and ticking over on Saturday. He draws players towards him all the time and he has this great knack of being able to keep the ball protected while progressing forwards with it at his feet. The goal came from him drawing two otherwise unoccupied Leicester plays away from Cancelo, who fired the shot in that landed at Bernardo's feet in the end.
Watch the goal back. Albrighton and Tielemans are supposed to be watching Cancelo, but they both drop five yards to protect the space that they think Grealish is going to attack, behind Castagne. Grealish never makes it obvious that he's about to drop it back to Cancelo - by the time he does pass the ball, Albrighton and Tielemans are far too deep to block the shot. Raheem, much as I love him, and Mahrez, great as I think he's been since January, aren't so sneaky with the ball.
Bernardo obviously man of the match but was also quietly impressed with how well we contained Leicester all over the pitch. We rode our luck a bit with the header against the crossbar, but have a look at their pass map - their most frequent passing sequence was between Soyuncu and Schmeichel. The connection between Vardy and his supporting midfielders is non-existent and even Tielemans can't get the ball to Maddison. Save for a brief period right after half-time, we completely shut them down.
For comparison, look at our pass map. Grealish, Bernardo, Cancelo - they're constantly moving the ball between each other, keeping the ball ticking over, making sure we move the ball frequently and at high speeds. Pep will look at this and will be, in his own words, "so so happy". Everyone is exactly where they're supposed to be and the ball is moving more than the players. That's why we never looked out of ideas and, eventually, why we kept creating chances that eventually won us the game.
I know he has his detractors already (ahem), but I think Grealish had a lot to do with how we always kept quietly simmering and ticking over on Saturday. He draws players towards him all the time and he has this great knack of being able to keep the ball protected while progressing forwards with it at his feet. The goal came from him drawing two otherwise unoccupied Leicester plays away from Cancelo, who fired the shot in that landed at Bernardo's feet in the end.
Watch the goal back. Albrighton and Tielemans are supposed to be watching Cancelo, but they both drop five yards to protect the space that they think Grealish is going to attack, behind Castagne. Grealish never makes it obvious that he's about to drop it back to Cancelo - by the time he does pass the ball, Albrighton and Tielemans are far too deep to block the shot. Raheem, much as I love him, and Mahrez, great as I think he's been since January, aren't so sneaky with the ball.
Bernardo obviously man of the match but was also quietly impressed with how well we contained Leicester all over the pitch. We rode our luck a bit with the header against the crossbar, but have a look at their pass map - their most frequent passing sequence was between Soyuncu and Schmeichel. The connection between Vardy and his supporting midfielders is non-existent and even Tielemans can't get the ball to Maddison. Save for a brief period right after half-time, we completely shut them down.
For comparison, look at our pass map. Grealish, Bernardo, Cancelo - they're constantly moving the ball between each other, keeping the ball ticking over, making sure we move the ball frequently and at high speeds. Pep will look at this and will be, in his own words, "so so happy". Everyone is exactly where they're supposed to be and the ball is moving more than the players. That's why we never looked out of ideas and, eventually, why we kept creating chances that eventually won us the game.