Harvey Barnes becomes one of Brendan’s star foxes …

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Brendan Rodgers felt he could do without Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans while making a number of changes to The journey from Leicester to Crystal Palace. The Foxes manager gladly accepted the need to seat Vardy on the bench given the two-day change of the tie with Manchester United, but there were some players Rodgers was unwilling to rest.

Kasper Schmeichel, as always, was in the sticks; Jonny Evans was called upon as the steady hand at the heart of the defense; while James Justin is now alone as the only player to have played every minute of Leicester’s Premier League campaign so far. Rodgers made only a couple of changes to his rear, but among his six forwards, only Harvey Barnes retained his spot.

The recently international England international has emerged as one of Rodgers’ best teams, highlighting their status with two goals in under 52 hours, both dripping in quality and importance.

First linked to United at King Power on Boxing Day before Barnes rescued the Foxes as they battled a Palace team desperately clinging to their first goal scored since conceding 11 to West Ham, Liverpool and Aston Villa.

Both endings highlight the great strides Barnes has made in his game. As he settled on the Leicester side, doubts surrounding the 23-year-old centered on his completion. It took Barnes 38 shots to register his first goal, at West Ham in April of last year. He has added 16 since then, 11 in the Premier League, with six this season coming from 32 efforts.

“I’ve been working on finishing and working on my moves to create scoring opportunities,” Barnes said before the start of the season, and it shows. Both goals in recent days came from what could hardly be described as half chances, with similarities between the pair. Both involved moving his feet quickly on the edge of the area before shooting with his weaker foot. Neither of them allowed David De Gea or Vicente Guaita to move their feet in response, and each effort took the only route to the goal that was offered.

There was criticism for Manchester United’s failure to close Barnes on the edge of the area on Saturday, but Palace could hardly be accused of the same. Three players circled Barnes as soon as he controlled Evans’ header 30 yards from goal, with Luka Milivojevic on his heels persistently. Barnes held off all who arrived as he worked in space to return his shot to Guaita.

In terms of xG, it was only 0.05 of a probability that summarizes the Barnes progression. During his season and a half as a regular first-team starter prior to the current campaign, his goal count has not been able to keep up with total expected goals, his xG is around 2.5 more than his actual loot last season and last season. . This season, Barnes is up 1.68.

His improvement has helped Barnes establish himself at the club, and perhaps the country as well, as a more potent presence than James Maddison. His strike today sees Barnes push one ahead of Maddison in scoring stakes from the start of last season, while the son of former York City forward Paul Barnes has two more assists in the same span.

By the time Barnes scored, Rodgers had already thrown Vardy and Tielemans off the bench looking for a point after Wilfried Zaha had threatened to win Palace all three. But even the introduction of Leicester’s two biggest presences failed to bring them to life. Palace felt comfortable after emerging for the second period with renewed vigor after keeping the Foxes at bay for most of the first half. Until Barnes appeared in the 83rd minute, Guaita didn’t have a save to make after the break as he was looking for a clean first sheet since opening day.

Under the circumstances, Rodgers is unlikely to care much about a boring second-half performance. Because of Barnes, the Foxes don’t need to worry about missing another chance to finish second.

Ian Watson



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