AdminTalking points from Leicester City’s 2-2 draw with Preston reveal a side caught between promise and peril as the relegation fight intensifies.
The last time City registered such a high shot count in a league match came on a day of celebration. Here, despite 28 attempts, they had to settle for a draw, converting just twice.
Context matters: chasing the game inflated the numbers, and many efforts were speculative. Still, with 20 more shots than Preston, they did enough to merit victory and controlled long spells barring a costly lapse before half-time.
It is a shift from earlier in the campaign. Under Marti Cifuentes, results often flattered City. Now, under Gary Rowett, they have begun to look the better side without collecting the points required. At this stage, encouraging signs carry little weight.
Rowett said: “We had good control in the first half, out of possession as well. But then it’s something that has plagued the team all season, it doesn’t matter who the manager is.
“It seems to be the same thing where we go from 1-0 up and a really good display to suddenly being 2-1 down without the opposition really having to do too much to get into that position.”
He added: “When you build a squad to dominate games with possession and expect to be higher up in the table, it means you perhaps don’t have one or two types of players to play a certain way. That’s what it is.
“If it’s a ball in the box and we just keep conceding the header, then you can look at ways to rectify that, but they’re all different. They’re all individual errors.
“That’s the frustration. I don’t think they’re structural, I don’t think they’re tactical. They’re just little moments.
But when we make one, we then tend to make another one, which is perhaps the hardest thing.”
Patson Daka’s brace, built on sharp pressing and instinct, offered genuine encouragement, while the crowd’s backing—particularly after Preston’s second—underlined a unity that could yet prove vital.
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