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Newcastle may not be the most exotic destination in January, but Leicester City seems to find it extraordinarily restorative. It’s not the first time that Brendan Rodgers’ players have left Tyneside exuding the renewed, optimistic glow often associated with teams just returned from winter break in the sun.
On a cold and biting afternoon, with a great wind chill factor, not even Andy Carroll’s first goal in a Newcastle jersey since rejoining his childhood club 18 months ago could dull a victory that elevates the Leicester to third place in the table, one point behind Liverpool and Manchester United.
“It was a very, very good victory for us,” Rodgers said. “Newcastle are well organized and can defend well and we didn’t create too many chances, but we still looked dangerous.”
Goals from excellent James Maddison and Youri Tielemans ensured that the visitors won their last five league games here. Given Steve Bruce’s atrocious management record against Leicester, it will be of little comfort to him that the Rodgers class of 2020-21 is arguably the most dangerous on the road; they have won seven of their nine away games.
If that’s a running theme, the first half quickly established another, namely Newcastle’s self-defeating penchant for gifting the ball to its guests.
As soon as Bruce’s players gained possession, they gave up, and Wilfred Ndidi, in particular, delighted in intercepting embryonic starting maneuvers and questioning the opposing central midfielder pair of the Longstaff brothers, Sean and Matty.
The strength of Ndidi’s defensive midfield created an ideal platform for Maddison to strut with his tone-raising creativity. An early example came when one of Maddison’s typical needle-eye passes allowed Jamie Vardy to steal behind Bruce’s baseline and, with his first touch, expertly circle Karl Darlow before directing the ball. to the empty net from an acute angle.
A linesman’s raised flag confirmed that Vardy had been narrowly offside, but that cameo underscored the scale of the threat Newcastle faces on a day when they paid the price for not shutting down Maddison and his footwork. gloriously elegant.
Admittedly, Bruce’s defense frequently did a decent job of depriving Vardy of possession with Federico Fernandez and Ciaran Clark making some big interventions when a tactical deadlock temporarily gripped.
However, Maddison is an expert at picking tactical locks and deconstructed the home team’s damage limitation strategy when Leicester swiftly counterattacked in the 55th minute.
When Harvey Barnes carried the ball forward at high speed, Bruce’s midfield was caught flat-footed and Barnes’s firing found Vardy, who reveled in nutmeg Fernandez as he turned left before picking Maddison with a beautifully weighted pass. All that was left was for the midfielder to send the ball in an arc toward the ceiling of the net, his clinical shot reducing Bruce’s shot to shreds.
Once again, Vardy had issued a reminder that he not only scores, but creates vital goals, while Wesley Fofana’s clever decoy charge down the left had misled the home defense. Bruce’s deluded right-back DeAndre Yedlin probably feels the need to see the reps through his fingers.
Newcastle’s pain was further compounded when another perfectly calibrated delivery, this one from Marc Albrighton, picked up Tielemans’ run and preceded the Belgian whipping the ball, for the first time, in the corner.
Jonjo Shelvey, newcomer as a substitute, should have picked up Tielemans but lost him and received a strong tick from Fernandez.
Carroll has always focused more on actions than words and, fresh off the bench, rekindled the contest with an equally fabulous volley.
Bruce’s own Angel of the North reacted instantly when Matt Ritchie’s free kick got in his way, and he was able to celebrate his first goal with black and white stripes since his departure to Liverpool 10 years ago.
“Andy Carroll’s goal turned the game into a war,” Rodgers said. “But we hold on and we face the physique of Newcastle.”
Carroll could need more of the same if Newcastle wants to avoid being dragged into a relegation fight. “I cannot criticize our effort and effort,” said Bruce, who does not yet have his main creator affected by Covid-19, Allan Saint-Maximin. “But if you give the ball away against Leicester, they punish you … and we give the ball away too often, too cheap.”
