Match Preview: Leicester City vs Huddersfield Town

Leicester City 11th (2-0-3) vs Huddersfield Town 18th (0-2-3)

Live from the King Power Stadium at 10 AM ET on NBC Gold

Well here we are. Five days removed from the smashing Bournemouth gave us on Saturday and I still don’t know what to think of the match. We looked good, yet we also looked really bad, which pretty much sums up Leicester at the moment. A 4-2 defeat, depending on who you ask, may or may not be a fair reflection of the match, but fairness has nothing to do with it. The result stays the same. Thankfully we get another chance to turn it around on Saturday from the comforts of the King Power Stadium.

The Opposition

Huddersfield have not had a great start to their season and I reckon if given the chance they’d swap with Leicester immediately. An opening day defeat at home to Chelsea 3-0, followed by an away trip to the champions Manchester City that ended 6-1 did not help to get them on a firm footing to begin their campaign. Their fixtures after were a bit more kind, Cardiff, Everton, and Crystal Palace, but they only managed to draw two and win one. Goalscoring has been a massive problem for them so far with only two scored in all competitions.

Photo by Mark Robinson/Getty Images

Steve Mounie was Huddersfield’s top goalscorer last year with seven in the league. To date he’s only managed one assist and that was against Manchester City. Huddersfield average about 7.5 shots per match and limiting them to this many or less would be a huge win for Leicester. Averaging only 38% possession per match will benefit the Foxes new style of playing with ball, especially since they’ve averaged 11 shots per game so far.

The Foxes

While it wasn’t the best of returns for Jamie Vardy, he still had his chances to make an impact early. A clear part of the last matches result laid in the fact they couldn’t finish. It wasn’t far from a 4-4 draw if you put the chances each team created side-by-side, and although Leicester we’re down 4-0 at one point, they still managed to grab two back in the dying embers of the 90.

Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images,

For me, never a second yellow and never a red. He’s blocked his clearance and tumbled over Wes Morgan. Not a popular opinion, but I think he was unfortunate to be sent off. As for his performance, well, don’t search his mentions on Twitter. On Ryan Fraser’s first goal I was shouting at the tv for Wes to not let him run inside him, and he did just that. It wasn’t all downhill after that, and it certainly wasn’t all Wes’ fault, but a calamity of errors is what we ended up with.

The Prediction

Two things stick out to me so far this season. The first being Leicester have allowed 33% of their total goals allowed in the first 20 minutes of the match. The second is that they have scored 50 % of their goals in the last 10 minutes of the match. This is quite the worrying trend and should it continue the Foxes will be chasing results most of the season. I have a terrible feeling we’re going to gift Huddersfield their first win of the season, but I hope I’m wrong.