Puel: Good Pressing & Goalscoring Chances
- Leicester City manager Claude Puel praises his side’s forward play against Manchester United
- Leicester fell to a 2-1 loss despite impressing throughout much of the first half
- Jamie Vardy was on target to open his 2018/19 Premier League account
The Premier League’s season opener ebbed and flowed as City responded well to Paul Pogba’s third-minute penalty.
Chances for the Foxes to level matters fell to Kelechi Iheanacho and James Maddison, as the former fired wide before the latter had an effort turned away by David De Gea.
“It’s disappointing for the players because they gave their best,” reflected Puel. “Of course, to concede a goal just a couple of seconds after the beginning of the game is a shame and we have to correct this.
“Our kick-off was not good enough. Our first-half was a good performance with good quality, good pressing, good play forward and a lot of chances. We needed to score in this moment, a strong period of domination in the first-half.
“We pushed and we played against a team who were deep on the pitch. Without space, it was difficult.
“We found success with good moves and good quality and perhaps in the second-half we had good energy to finish this performance for another result but I think at the end it is a disappointment. It is not, for me, a fair result.”
Puel’s overall opinion was that his side dominated in large periods and ultimately deserved at least a point from the entertaining encounter.
He continued: “We dominated this game with good play and a lot of chances. With a lot of free-kicks and set pieces, we can do a lot better with these situations.
“Sometimes we were unlucky with the possibilities to score in different moves. I’m happy about the performance but it would have been better to win or draw for our fans. It would have been a good reward for our play.”
Maddison, Ricardo Pereria and Rachid Ghezzal all made their City debuts in Manchester and Puel was happy with the way they performed against the Red Devils.
“I think for a first game it is encouraging,” said the Leicester manager. “We lacked energy in the second half but we had a lot of solutions with good starting play.
“We had a lot of difficulties in preparing for this game without a good level of fitness and all our players. I hope we can find the consistency in the physicality and fitness. It was tough to finish our game tonight.
“We finished the game with a lot of tiredness from our play but we always have the mentality to try and come back and to score at the end. It’s a good mentality, a good spirit. We need to continue with this.”