James Maddison breathed life into Brendan Rodgers’ reign at Leicester City with a display that may hasten the end of Steve Cooper’s tenure at Nottingham Forest.
Maddison scored twice, had one hand in the other two and teased Forest all night with his guile and vision. Gareth Southgate somehow continues to ignore him, despite England’s creativity woes. Helped Leicester off the bottom of the table and sent Forest down there.
“Having that ability off the bench in a tight World Cup game is what a team like England needs,” Rodgers said. “I hope there’s a spot on the roster for someone with that much talent.”
James Maddison scored twice to lead Leicester to their first Premier League win of the season
Maddison opened the scoring when his shot from outside the area took a poor deflection
MATCH DATA AND PLAYER SCORES
Leicester (4-3-3): Ward 6; Castagne 7, Evans 6.5, Faes 6.5, Justin 6; Tielemans 8 (Praet 80), Ndidi 6 (Soumare 46, 6.5), Dewsbury-Hall 6.5; Maddison 8.5 (Albrighton 85), Vardy 6 (Daka 62, 7), Barnes 7.5.
Scorers: Maddison 25, 34, Barnes 27, Daka 72
Booked: Soumare, Maddison,
Manager: Brendan Rodgers 8
Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Henderson 6; Williams 5 (Aurier 46, 6), Cook 5.5, McKenna 6, Lodi 5; Kouyate 5 (Freuler 46, 6), O’Brien 5 (Yates 46, 6); Johnson 6.5, Gibbs-White 6, Lingard 4.5 (Mangala 69, 6); Awoniyi 6 (Dennis 62, 6).
Reserved: Williams, Kouyate, Lingard
Manager: Steve Cooper 5
Referee: Robert Jones 6
Leicester were thumped 4-1 by Forest in the FA Cup in February, but got revenge here with their first win of the season. If this one had gone the other way, who knows what Rodgers’ fate would have been?
Instead, Maddison’s brace, either side of Harvey Barnes’ stunner, put the Foxes 3-0 up at the break before substitute Patson Daka added a mischievous fourth.
“The club trusts me in my work and maybe that’s why I’m still in work,” admitted Rodgers. “This was a game that changed the season if we could produce a result and a performance. It feels like the first game of the season and hopefully now we can go up the league.”
Now it’s Cooper who fears for his future. After spending £150m in the summer on 22 players, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is unlikely to accept a run of five successive defeats, with Rafa Benitez among those on his radar.
“I refuse to be really critical of players because relationships are built over time and we haven’t had that,” Cooper said. “But we gave Leicester too much space and we didn’t like them in duels. We’re still not the team we want to be.”
However, his reputation as one of the game’s brightest managers remains intact, and Forest fans made their feelings clear, chanting Cooper’s name regularly.
Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, known as Khun Top, was watching from the directors’ box and urged disillusioned fans to cheer his team on.
Sure enough, they heeded his call and should have been rewarded with an early goal, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jamie Vardy missing chances.
Leicester were dominant early on but remain so fragile at the back. Before that, they had conceded 22 goals in their first seven games and Taiwo Awoniyi came desperately close to making it 23, hitting a post.
Harvey Barnes celebrates as his stunning strike doubles Leicester’s lead in the first half
Maddison made it three-nil with a superb free-kick that left Dean Henderson stranded in goal.
How Forest was made to pay. Jesse Lingard made a mess of a clearance on the edge of the box and Maddison gathered it before firing over. Henderson moved towards it, but once the ball clipped Scott McKenna’s arm, he could only watch it go past him.
The second was the class. Maddison found Barnes on the left, who cut inside to deliver a perfect strike. Two goals in 110 seconds.
Ten minutes before the break, Cheikhou Kouyate pushed Dewsbury-Hall. Maddison did the rest, sending his free-kick over the wall and off a post. Are you watching Gareth?
Steve Cooper (left) is now under immense pressure as Forest boss, while Brendan Rodgers (right) has bought time in the Leicester dugout.
Cooper stood, hands on knees and head bowed, in the penalty area as the home crowd chanted, ‘Looted in the morning’. Early in the second half, Barnes’ volley hit Steve Cook with an arm, but nothing came of it, much to the fury of the home fans.
Forest made three changes at half-time: Kouyate, Lewis O’Brien and Neco Williams off.
Daka had replaced Vardy and when Maddison sent in a low cross from the right, the Zambian showed fabulous invention to wrong-foot Henderson with a Johan Cruyff-esque strike that slotted across the goalkeeper’s hand
The Forest players looked for answers during their 4-0 hammering of the King Power
Leicester’s surprise win also earned them their first clean sheet of the new season
Patson Daka made it 4-0 with a brilliant backheel to score the only goal of the second half.
Daka celebrates as his goal ensures Leicester complete all three points against Forest
Relive all the action at the King Power Stadium as it happened below.