Leicester City Fan View: Patience with Iheanacho pays off as Silva adds more than a touch of class

Claude Puel re-iterated his desire to keep Kelechi Iheanacho and give the striker more chances to kick start his Leicester City career earlier this month. After a woeful cameo against Fleetwood Town in the original tie, he wasn’t an obvious candidate to start the replay. Granted a starting role, Iheanacho will claim all the headlines having notched a brace. The Foxes’ patience with him pays off at last.

A huge confidence boost for Iheanacho and history made

It wasn’t just Iheanacho who had a slow start to the game. The Foxes had to ease into the replay against a well organised Fleetwood. The deadlock was eventually broken close to half-time. A beautifully controlled ball from Islam Slimani passed first time. For a striker who’s looked starved of confidence, it was a tidy finish. A crucial goal and celebrated as such.

The impact this goal had on the rest of his game was so positive. He’d not made much impact prior to that, but the Foxes had struggled to look like a team who are used to playing together. What we saw after the goal is a glimpse of the player we hoped we’d signed and the reason we paid £25 million. Iheanacho utilised his pace and took players on again, something we hadn’t seen enough of prior to this.

The striker will be the answer to pub quiz questions now too. History was made tonight with Iheanacho’s second goal, granted for the first time in this country, by VAR. It was a tight offside decision. Much will be made of how VAR played its role, but it won’t bother Leicester. After a sixty second wait, the striker was allowed to celebrate and sealed progress to the fourth round.

The second was an easier finish, after an absolutely brilliant run and ball through from Riyad Mahrez. The Algerian, Captain for the night, had a quieter game than his weekend display. There were flashes of that magic though, several pieces of overlapping play with Slimani, some class first touches and a different approach from him. He’s not the obvious choice of a Captain but he looked to relish the role and it’s interesting to see Puel trust him on another level.

Adrien Silva adds a huge dose of class and pizzazz

Adrien Silva probably didn’t envisage that both of his first starts for Leicester would be against Fleetwood. Whereas he struggled in the first game, not his fault when the game was largely played over his head, he shone this time. Our style of play at home helps, passing and keeping it on the ground. This suits his quick, sharp approach.

Easily man of the match, he barely put a foot wrong. There’s an argument that the best is yet to come from him, but based on what we’ve seen so far, that’s incredibly mouth-watering. His vision on the ball is a class above, virtually every single pass found a team-mate and it was only more ambitious ones that failed. The pizzazz in trying these shows he’s getting to grips with our style and his colleagues. Having played with Slimani before, the link-up there is interesting too.

Silva’s first touch puts him alongside the likes of Mahrez. There were turns today that not only looked smart, but were a joy to watch. Not just classy but intelligent play. Yes, this was against a lower league opponent, but it’s already clear that he was more than wait the agonising wait. Similar to Iborra, he makes everything look so easy. Every pass or move completed with an air of calm and total composure.

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It was pleasing to see him partner Vicente Iborra too. Despite a more mixed bag of a performance from Iborra, the signs indicate that this is another viable partnership for midfield. The two communicate well, able to read one another’s positioning and movement easily. When one went forward the other always dropped back to cover. Puel has a pleasant selection headache for this area. None of them deserve to miss out but we can’t play all four.

Puel’s gamble to change the side again works, but the gaps still show

Mahrez and Aleksandar Dragovic were the only starting players who’d featured against Chelsea at the weekend. Even then, we had no choice but to start Dragovic in order to rest Harry Maguire. Puel’s gamble worked this time, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for his side. Fleetwood pressed us well and had Eldin Jakupovic not tipped over a good chance, things might have been a lot harder.

While Puel’s a little reluctant to dip into the transfer market too much, it’s clear that we have to fortify the defence a little. Yohan Benalouane was lucky to stay on the pitch and generally demonstrated why he’s not playing more regularly with a rusty performance and too many poor touches. We still have no cover for right-back beyond Daniel Amartey who’s having to play every game currently while Danny Simpson works his way back.

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Our options up front look brighter after this display from Iheanacho. It was a decent performance from Slimani too, proving again that he’s not selfish and has a great first touch. He looked frustrated to be substituted so early on, replaced by Marc Albrighton. It’s understandable to a point. We’ve so rarely seen Albrighton and Slimani share the pitch despite it seeming like a brilliant partnership in the making. Perhaps we want to call upon him this weekend.

Puel will be pleased with the outcome and it was another valuable ninety minutes for some of the players still hoping for more regular game-time. For fans, the FA Cup dream lives on, a tie at Peterborough in the fourth round.