Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans instrumental as Leicester City draw 2-2 with Manchester United

The midfield duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans were two of the standout performances in a fantastic game at the King Power Stadium that ended in a 2-2 draw between Leicester City and Manchester United on Boxing Day.

Plenty of players performed exceptionally and pin-pointing Ndidi and Tielemans was a hard thing to do. Bruno Fernandes showed his quality that he has brought into the Manchester United squad with a goal and an assist. So did Harvey Barnes as he continues to grow game by game, adding another goal to his tally with a beautiful shot from outside the box.

The game was wide open and had many chances that could have seen either side score one or two more goals in the encounter.

Marcus Rashford could have opened the scoring for the Red Devils in the second minute of the game. Fernandes crossed the ball into the area but the Englishman’s header flew over the bar.

The forward did not give up and opened the scoring for the visitors in the 23rd minute. The Portuguese midfielder, Fernandes, was involved yet again after Daniel James squared it across to Manchester United’s no.18.

Fernandes threw himself on the floor and got the slightest of touches on the ball that went through to Rashford as he slotted the ball past Kasper Schmeichel to make it 1-0 in United’s favour.

It wouldn’t take long for Leicester to grab the equaliser. Manchester United’s Portuguese midfielder made the mistake, a sloppy pass which bounced off of James Maddison with the midfielder inheriting possession.

The no.10 passed the ball onto Barnes, who took two touches and thumped his effort at goal which beat David de Gea and put the Foxes back on level terms.

Similarly to the first half, the second 45 minutes had two late-ish goals that settled the game at a 2-2 draw. It was Manchester United that took the lead once again in the 79th minute.

Substitute Edinson Cavani played a nice ball into Fernandes’ feet as the midfielder tapped the ball into the Leicester goal, capping off another fantastic performance with a goal and an assist.

The Foxes did not give up though and equalised with five minutes of normal time to go. Ayoze Perez came on four minutes before his contribution to Leicester’s goal. The winger crossed the ball into the area which Jamie Vardy shot at goal. The ball bounced off of Axel Tuanzebe’s knee and ended up in the back of the net which lead to the two sides sharing a point from the fixture.

Having played the 4-2-3-1 system, Brendan Rodgers’ men enjoyed there fair share of possession with 55% to 45% in Leicester City’s favour.

The formula to that possession was Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi. The pairing were deployed as the two defensive midfielders behind the trio of Barnes, Maddison and Marc Albrighton.

Tielemans was able to make forward runs and join in attacking moves with the trio, whilst Ndidi did the dirty work and cleared up any danger that Manchester United created as the Nigerian stayed tight ahead of Leicester’s defensive line.

The 24-year-old only made his sixth start in the Premier League after he missed the entirety of October and November due to injury, showing just how much of his defensive assets the Foxes missed.

Ndidi was only beaten by his midfield partner, Tielemans, in duels won. The pairing won a combined 23 with the Nigerian winning 11 during the game.

He looked to be everywhere, winning the ball and, most importantly, being there for the defence if need when they were counter-attacked on a few occasions.

Leading in tackles attempted and tackles succeeded, the six-foot midfielder made sure that he helped his team out defensively whilst Tielemans helped in the front lines.

Moving onto the Belgians game, he could have scored during the fixture if it wasn’t for a Barnes block that deflected the ball out for a goal-kick. Tielemans looked to curve his shot into the top right corner, but the Leicester winger didn’t anticipate the midfielder’s shot and could only block it, deflecting it out of play.

In a match that was likely to be one of liking for the Belgian, he sure made his attacking presence clear and the system Rodgers played worked perfectly for him.

Not only did he win the most duels, but showed his intent in helping his team on the front foot with six successful dribbles.

His passing ability was also out on display as he completed 68 out of his 79 passes, giving him an 86% success rate as he showed why Leicester paid £40 million for him back in 2019 after his loan spell in the 2018/19 season.

Now having established a very good duo between Tielemans and Ndidi, Rodgers will need to keep the two midfielders injury-free as they look to mount a challenge for the title with the Foxes currently sat in third-place, only a few points behind current leaders, Liverpool.

Leicester will end their 2020 with a trip to Selhurst Park on Monday evening as the Foxes will look to continue their unbeaten run in the Premier League, and will hope for a good finish to 2020 with a win that can kick start 2021 in a good way.

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