Wrexham player ratings from 1-1 Leicester City draw. Arthur Okonkwo and Ollie Rathbone stood out for Phil Parkinson’s men from another winless evening.
Wrexham were well advised to exploit Leicester City’s terrible clean sheet habits before the game but the Reds couldn’t. A chaotic goal was all that Phil Parkinson’s men could, before demonstrating their own backline issues in the dying moments on the weekend.
With this, Wrexham have come out of their winnable fixtures phase for now. Well-drilled teams like QPR, Millwall and Ipswich Town await Wrexham next, and most of these meetings will be away trips on top of that. The biggest learning Phil Parkinson should take from these past 2 results is making better substitutions.
Holding back usual standout performers like Nathan Broadhead, Sam Smith and George Dobson does no good to Wrexham unless the 3 points are well in sight.
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While facing Leicester, not a majority of the Wrexham starters were awful. Still, Parky remained rigid on playing a lightweight lineup where a full strength squad could have steamrolled the Foxes with a 2-0 or atleast a 2-1 win.
On that note, below are the Wrexham player ratings on a scale of 10 for every starting lineup player from the 1-1 Leicester City draw.
Wrexham player ratings from 1-1 Leicester City draw
GK: Arthur Okonkwo – 8
Strong fingertip save in the first half to prevent Leicester City from grabbing a 1-0 lead. In the second half, reacted well to a low drilled shot on his near post. Overall, Okonkwo would be unlucky not to warrant a clean sheet here.
CB: Callum Doyle – 6
Doyle failed to mark Jordan Ayew properly and nearly left Ayew in a 1v1 situation. Besides that nervy moment, Doyle looked solid with his distribution up front that included laying the pre-assist on Lewis O’Brien’s goal.
CB: Dominic Hyam – 7
Marked Stephy Mavididi well on a second-half Leicester counter, forcing him to shoot straight to Okonkwo. Made a few timely clearances, and even tried blocking the 1-1 equaliser to save the day for Wrexham.
CB: Max Cleworth – 7
Cleworth was good with his passing and mainly stayed at the back. There was one serious chance where Cleworth ran forward to score, but couldn’t beat the Leicester keeper from a narrow angle.
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LWB: Liberato Cacace – 7
Cacace took on Nathan Broadhead’s duties to create chances from the left flank. Combined well with Callum Doyle to set up the first goal. Showed a brilliant combo of pace and trickery to deliver a dangerous cross for Moore in injury time, but couldn’t get the assist.
CM: Matty James – 7
Matty James won his individual midfield battle against Oliver Skipp, and kept taking attempts from outside of the box to pull some more goals for Wrexham. Also, won the possession in the last chance of the match but the Reds couldn’t capitalize well to set up a thrilling 2-1 finish.
CM: Ben Sheaf – 6
Sheaf was better this time, following a nightmare performance against Norwich City. Made some good interceptions, got dispossessed at times but a decent day for him overall.
RWB: Ryan Longman – 6
Didn’t make much sense why Parkinson benched Issa Kabore immediately after one game. Ryan Longman worked hard to lay some forward pass in the front three but Kabore’s crossing was dearly missed on the night.
LW: Lewis O’Brien – 8
Lewis O’Brien is often labelled as the worst 1v1 finisher in the Wrexham squad. The midfielder has squandered a bunch of easy tap-ins recently, but he didn’t let an open goal opportunity go to waste vs Leicester City.
Don’t know why Lewis O’Brien was chosen at the right wing. Hopefully, this stays a one-off experiment only.
ST: Kieffer Moore – 7
Kieffer Moore had less box presence than Sam Smith has maintained in every January game he played. For this reason, fans are quite unhappy with Moore.
Plus, Moore let Jannik Vestergaard have a go for the 1-1 finish without marking him. Had Sam Smith been in his place, the latter would have done a better defensive job too.
RW: Ollie Rathbone – 8
Leicester City came with a clear gameplan against Ollie Rathbone. They fouled him, tried to man-mark him with a couple of defenders. Despite that, Rathbone aimed a few goal-worthy strikes and kept helping the midfield in winning more ball possession.
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