Leeds United Player Ratings: Leeds United 1-4 Leicester City

Leeds fell to a second consecutive home defeat on Monday night against Leicester City, the Foxes coming away with a 4-1 win. In torrential rain Leeds found it difficult to get into their rhythm and their opponents proved to be too clinical for The Whites to cope with.

Bamford should have put Leeds ahead in the opening 90 seconds but it was Leicester who drew first blood after two minutes when Robin Koch’s backpass was left well short and Jamie Vardy pounced to round the on-coming goalkeeper and slide in Harvey Barnes for a tap-in.

Vardy punished Leeds again to double the lead, stealing in ahead of Koch with a diving header that was saved by Meslier, but Youri Tielemans was there to put in the rebound.

Leeds looked afraid of the counter attack that Leicester had been punishing them with which forced Ayling and Dallas further back for the remainder of the half to give the defence some stability.

They started the half off brightly though, with Stuart Dallas swinging in a cross that bounced into the net untouched to put Leeds back in the game on 48 minutes. They kept the pressure up and came close to equalising with Pablo Hernandez curling an effort from the edge of the area on to the crossbar. From there Leicester regained their composure and Leeds struggled to get through again aside from a couple of half chances.

Jamie Vardy got the goal he deserved when substitute Cengiz Ünder was played in behind the Leeds defence, chipping the ball over Meslier and Dallas giving Vardy a simple finish. They rounded the game off with a penalty after a foul from Klich on James Maddison allowed Tielemans to get his second and Leicester’s fourth.

Similar to the Wolves performance, Leeds had plenty of possession but outside of a short spell in the second half did little to trouble Kasper Schmeichel on his return to Elland Road.

Time now to look at each player and how they performed. As always you can tell me how wrong I am @mightywhitespod or @ThruItAllLUFC on twitter.

STARTING LINEUP

Illan Meslier - His only real error was fumbling a a cross on to his near post. That aside, made a couple of good saves and was fairly helpless for Leicester’s goals. 6/10

Luke Ayling - The speed at which Leicester broke in the first half forced him to play much deeper than usual and was unable to affect the game in the opposition half. Lucky to not be booked for a dive in the second half. 5/10

Robin Koch - His backpass was well short of Meslier allowing Leicester in for the first and he allowed Vardy to get ahead of him for a header that led to their second goal. Those two incidents aside, a solid if unspectacular performance. 5/10

Liam Cooper - A very mediocre performance from the returning captain. Didn’t do too much wrong but often struggled to deal with the pace of Leicester’s attack. 5/10

Stuart Dallas - Like Ayling he was forced to sit deeper in the first half. His in-swinging cross went untouched getting a goal back for Leeds. 6/10

Jamie Shackleton - Deserved to start after his performance against Aston Villa but was completely anonymous in the first half. He took Klich’s role which seemed to put both of them out of their comfort zone. 4/10

Mateusz Klich - Unsuited to playing in Kalvin Phillips role and as a result created a large gap between himself and Leeds’ frontline. Gave away possession a few times with Barnes and Vardy always looking to pounce. Managed to avoid a silly yellow card and conceded the penalty to round off Leicester’s win. 4/10

Helder Costa - Everytime I do the player ratings it’s the same performance from Costa. Looked to take players on and linked up well with Hernandez on occasion but was never consistently in the game. 5/10

Pablo Hernandez - Coming in to replace Rodrigo who is self isolating, Pablo had a mixed bag with some great link-up play but at times giving away possession too easily. Was unlucky not to get a goal after his effort from the edge of the box curled on to the crossbar, almost giving Leeds an equaliser. 6/10

Jack Harrison - His header almost set up Bamford to open the scoring in the first 90 seconds. Had a solid battle against Marc Albrighton and James Justin. In the second half he seemed to be playing at ten and on the left wing with varying degrees of success. 5/10

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

Patrick Bamford - Will be disappointed that he didn’t score with the first chance of the game and even more disappointed that Leicester took the lead twenty seconds later. He had a one-on-one saved by an on-rushing Schmeichel and had a half chance when chasing down a long ball the Leicester keeper cleared it straight in to him. He definitely missed Rodrigo tonight. 5/10

SUBSTITUTES

Ian Poveda (for Shackleton, 46 minutes) - Looked lively in the first twenty minutes of the second half but sometimes made things more difficult for himself than was needed. 5/10

Tyler Roberts (for Hernandez, 66 minutes) - Not surprising to see him come on with the lack of depth on Leeds’ bench but was caught between playing as a ten and a central midfielder and didn’t really do either. 4/10

Gjanni Alioski (for Dallas, 81 minutes) - N/A