Leicester City manager Dean Smith admitted that his side would have been fortunate to go two goals ahead against Everton but reckons Sean Dyche’s side were spared such a deficit because of a rare goalkeeping decision from Jordan Pickford.
Everton had started brightly at the King Power Stadium, going ahead through Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s penalty but after goals from Caglar Soyuncu and Jamie Vardy turned the game on its head, they faced the prospect of being 3-1 down at the break when Michael Oliver pointed to the spot after a handball from Michael Keane. Rather than make up his mind early though, Blues keeper Pickford, after consulting the crib sheet showing opponents’ spot-kick tendencies on his water battle, stayed on his feet to save James Maddison’s strike that went down the middle of the goal.
Smith said: “Since I’ve been here, if Kel (Inheanacho) was on the pitch, he was taking the penalty but if Madders is on the pitch behind Kel, he’d take it after Kel. That’s been there for the last three or four games so there’s not so much confusion from me.
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“I spoke to a couple of coaches as soon as I got here and asked ‘who is on penalties?’ and Kel and Madders were the two as Vards hadn’t been playing much before we got here so naturally he wouldn’t be on them as he’s missed a couple this season. Madds is our top goalscorer and if he scores, nobody is even asking the question but fortunately for Everton, the goalkeeper stood up in the middle of the goal, which not many goalkeepers do, so it happens.”
Although they could have gone 3-1 up, Smith was actually disappointed by the Foxes’ first half display and felt they actually played better after Alex Iwobi’s second half equaliser made the score 2-2. He said: “There were times when I thought it was two points lost and there were times when I thought it was a point gained. In the first half performance I thought we were second best for periods with so many unforced errors from what I believe are quality footballers and the game became a little bit basketbally and we were the counter-attacking team at home which is not what we want.
“I thought in the second half we were better, certainly after their goal, there was a period for 25-30 minutes in which we had control and that’s what I’d expect us to have at home. But it became a bit of a basketball game with chances at both ends.
“We’ve had a big chance at 2-1, Jamie Vardy has hit the bar and we’ve had the penalty and that may change the game but we’ll see.”
Smith added: “The mood was a little bit down because I didn’t think we’d played well in the first half but we still looked a real threat as a counter-attacking team but I’d expect us to have more control. They obviously play up to Calvert-Lewin and play off him and I thought their two wide players were getting into spaces that we hadn’t covered in the half spaces so we put Youri (Tielemans) as a 10 and I thought that helped us.”
Leicester City could have gone four points clear of Everton had they won but while the draw takes them out of the relegation zone, Smith insists this head-to-head was never going to make or break his side’s season. He said: “I never thought that if we’d have won this game then we’d be clear. Also if we’d have lost the game, there still 12 points to play for.
“I was just disappointed though as we were second best in the first half and it was probably the worst we’ve played in the four games I’ve had as there were so many unforced errors and that includes the Man City game. I can understand it a little bit as our job is to free those players up a little bit as there’s a lot at stake and they know that as well but we’ve got to thank our fans for the noise as they got behind us.
“It’s gone, you can’t change it. We’ve played Leeds and now we’ve played Everton and got two points out of it.
“If we’d have won one and lost one would that have put us in a better situation? I don’t know because one of our rivals would have got three points as well.
“The league at the moment is a real tight one at the bottom. We’re pleased to be out of it but we know we’ll play better and there’s more to come from us for sure.”
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