Matchday Live Talking Points: Maddison’s Moment, Chipping Away & Instinctive Choudhury
James Maddison hit a brilliant winner to add to Ricardo Pereira’s equaliser as City beat Mauricio Pochettino’s side 2-1 at King Power Stadium in the lunchtime kick-off.
The Matchday Live panel discussed a number of factors after the victory, including Maddison’s effort, the impact of substitute Hamza Choudhury and the playing style which Brendan Rodgers is implementing.
Swing in momentum
Rob Tanner said: “It was astonishing. You talk about how the game can change and in the first half, when VAR ruled out City’s goal, the momentum swung to Tottenham. Then, you get the exact opposite – Spurs had a goal disallowed by VAR and the momentum swung back to City. The fatigue set in with Spurs going into that last 20 minutes or so, and City just seemed to grow into it. When that VAR decision was announced, the crowd were lifted and there was a great buzz around the stadium and that energised the players. To win it with that strike from James Maddison was astonishing.”
Maddison’s moment
Matt Elliott said: “A lot has been said about James Maddison this season and rightly so. You got the ultimate end product today with that goal, and the timing of it as well. Hamza Choudhury came onto the pitch and Brendan Rodgers was looking, not to shore things up maybe, but to solidify things a little bit and give City that extra defensive edge. He was involved, his early pass made a difference. It was simple, but effective. It gave Maddison time to open his body up, and what a strike it was. What a moment to produce that goal.”
Choudhury’s instinctive pass
Gerry Taggart said: “Why take a touch when you can do it first time? That showed today, that split second that James Maddison needed to get the ball out of his feet and get his shot away. It looks simple, and it looks easy, but it’s that decision making from Hamza Choudhuy that you need to do something like that first time, and the rest, of course, unveiled itself as and when it happened.”
Chipping away at Spurs
Steve Guppy said: “The key moments came at the right times for Leicester today. Spurs scored and it would have been 2-0, but the goal was disallowed, and the crowd went ballistic. It gave everyone a boost, and then five or 10 minutes after that, Leicester equalised and that’s another boost. Then, you can feel it building, and when they got what turned out to be the winning goal, the roof came off. That chipped away at Tottenham’s players. When that second goal went in, they weren’t coming back from it.”
Swarming Foxes
Matt Elliott said: “They’ve got that character in the team, they’ve got that mentality where they all dig in together. They swarm over teams at times and test them out to pressurise them. They see if they’ve got the frailties and on top of that, they’ve got quality, but at the moment, I don’t think that quality has been fulfilled just yet. There’s a lot more to come, which is even more exciting. If they can produce performances like they have against Tottenham, then there’s more to come.”
City kept going
Gerry Taggart said: “You can’t take anything away from this team. They just don’t give up, do they? Even when it’s not going according to plan, or it’s not as fluent as you’d like it to be. They just keep going and keep going and, in the end, they just wore Tottenham down – a bit like they did against Bournemouth. Tottenham, in the end, just couldn’t live with them, they were out on their feet. It may have something to do with them playing midweek, but Leicester can’t concern themselves with that. Hats off to the lads.”
Matchday Live will return on Tuesday evening at 6:45pm BST, following the Pre-Match Pint, as LCFC Radio provides free coverage of Leicester City's Carabao Cup Third Round tie with Luton Town at Kenilworth Road (7:45pm BST kick-off).