Chapter 146 - Leicester

Until the end, the score was still 2-1 for Southampton's victory. This victory made Southampton advance to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Next, Southampton will face a challenge from Sunderland.

In the last three games Southampton had won against Tottenham, drew against Manchester City, but lost against West Ham. Media was believe Southampton was decline. Kazuki alone was definitely not enough to maintain the premier league's second position. Losing Kazuki's support players like Rustan and Ryan, who was injured, had a big impact on Southampton.

However, they did not expect, Bennet would rise to become great helper for Southampton. He began to show a stable and calm game. Southampton face Sunderland.

But in this game, Southampton showed that they still had the ability to be in the top 4 this season. Southampton finished off Sunderland with 5 goals, Kazuki got a hat-trick while Bennet made a hat-trick assists and one goal. Meanwhile, another goal was created by Kounde.

This Victory was slapping media analysis. Bennet's improved form was hailed as a sign that Manchester United's academy was in the process of revival. However, on the other hand, this also made Manchester United fans even more angry with Moyes. Why did he agree to loan Bennet to Southampton?

In addition, this also made Manchester United fans protest Moyes to play Ethan. It was widely known that Ethan was one of Kazuki's friends while he was at the Manchester United Academy.

Then February came. At the beginning of February the last 16 of the Champions League will begin. Clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City had to share their focus. On the other hand, Southampton must be able to take advantage of this opportunity to create as many points as possible.

Southampton's next match came. Southampton will face a challenge from Portsmouth. Although itit was said to be a south coast derby, the big difference between Southampton and Portsmouth this season made this derby was expected to be dominated by Southampton. After all, Portsmouth was at the end of the Premier League table.

Then Southampton was proven that the statement was true. Southampton easily beat Portsmouth 4-0. Kazuki scored the first goal with a powerful shot after receiving a flat pass from Kounde.

The second goal came after Kazuki gave Crage a pass. Crage managed to change the ball direction and put the ball into the Portsmouth net. Then the third goal came in the second half. Bennet managed to send an accurate long shot, the Portsmouth goalkeeper failed to catch the ball well. The final goal came after Simone headed in a ball from Bennet crossing in a corner kick.

This result once again made analysts wonder, why was Southampton able to maintain such stability even though they did not have a deep bench? The answer was [Dream Training] Kazuki deliberately reduced the quota for the Japanese national team just for Southampton, so they could maintain a stable performance.

Especially Bennet, Kazuki kept picking Bennet repeatedly every day in order to make Bennet develop and maintain his good performance.

Even though he will only play for Southampton for a season and a half, Kazuki wants every Southampton fan to recognize him as someone who had big contributed to the club.

"Good evening everyone, this time skysports will present week 24 of the English Premier League. In this round we will broadcast the match between Leicester City Vs Southampton.

Two rounds before, Southampton showed explosive performance, they crushed Sunderland with a score of 5-0 then beat Portsmouth with a score of 4-0. Southampton's playing style was very aggressive. This was happened with greay performance of Bennet and Kazuki.

Meanwhile, Leicester is stranded in 10th position in the English Premier League. Not a bad position, but quite disappointing. After the good performance shown last season, of course there is disappointment to see Leicester back to being an ordinary mid-table club. Even so, there was some special notes, Leicester's young players performance is getting more and more prominent.

Alright without waiting any longer, let's take a look at the formation of the two teams. First Southampton, in this match Southampton fielded a 4-5-1 formation.

Goalkeepers: Dean Smith;

Defenders: Winsley Hart, Jimmy, Okhalo, Ben Carter;

Midfielders: Wright-Phillips, Simone, Bennett, Rudolf, Orlando.

Front: Kazuki.

Meanwhile Leicester will use a 4-1-2-3 formation.

Goalkeepers: Kasper Schmeichel;

Defenders: Daniel Aimerte, J. Evans, Fofana, C. Soeyuecue;

Defensive midfielders: Ngogi Kante;

Attacking midfielders: Drinkwater, A. Perez;

Forwards: Hugo, Okazaki, Riyad Mahrez.

It looks like Southampton in this match have a 4-5-1 formation that could turn into a 4-3-2-1 with Bennett and also Wright-Phillips slightly forward to supply Kazuki. Uniquely they use their three pure defenders. Will Southampton be passive in this match?

Meanwhile, it seems that Okazaki is more trusted by Nigel Pearson this time than Adama Traore. It's interesting to see how Okazaki performs against his teammates in the Japanese national team.

Alright, the first half is about to start, let's move to the situation on the pitch."

When the game was about to start, Hugo looked at the Southampton players. He put on a gloomy face. His decision to move from Southampton at the start of the 2012/2013 season to Leicester City was a big blunder. If only he was still at Southampton maybe he would feel proud when he was at the top of the table.

His eyes turned to Kazuki's figure. Southampton's change began when Kazuki entered the first team. At that time, Hugo didn't think much of Kazuki. But the young man surprised him. He was different. Someone like that only appears once every generation.

Hugo had never played with Mattheo Rodrigues nor against Mattheo. he only saw it on television. But Hugo dared to speak that Kazuki's future couldn't be lower than Mattheo's. Mattheo had dominated football for several years, but if there was a player who could break Mattheo's dominance, it would be Kazuki.

Meanwhile, Southampton's match against Leicester went smoothly. In this match George deliberately put 3 midfielders because as before, Leicester's strength was in the middle and front. By stacking players in the middle, Southampton could cut off the flow of the ball forward.

At the start of the game, George's thought was proved correct. Although Leicester had the ball, they were very difficult to penetrate the Southampton midfield. This made them only control the ball in their defense area.

If it was last season, Leicester had Maddison who was able to break through the siege of Southampton's midfield. But Drinkwater, who was more stable and monotonous than Maddison, clearly couldn't do it. Drinkwater will make no mistake on short passes but this time what Leicester needed was a creative pass.

Southampton took this situation seriously. They were patiently waiting for Leicester to make a mistake. That patience then paid off. In the 9th minute, Kante's pass was intercepted by Bennet. At that moment, Southampton's players moved forward together. Bennet sent a pass back to Simone.

Simone accepted the pass and diverted it to Rudolf. Ayoze tried to grab the ball from Rudolf, Rudolf instead provoked Ayoze forward and sent a pass to Winsley Hart. Winsley dribbled the ball through the gap left by Ayoze. His moved make Kante ran to stop Winlsey. However, Winsley easily provided pass to Bennet.

The Southampton player who was loaned out by Manchester United, Bennet, got rid from Kante. Leicester centre-back, Evans was forced to step up to stop Bennett. At that point Wright-Phillips moved forward. Bennet gave the ball to Wright-Phillips. The player dribbled the ball into the penalty box.

He then faked a shoot then passed the ball to Kazuki. A fake shot by Wright-Phillips was able to trick Leicester players into making it easier for Kazuki to score. He sent the ball into the far corner from Kasper Schmeichel. As a result the ball pierced sharply into the goalpost.

"Oh my god! Southampton managed to score in 9 minutes. This was Kazuki's fifth goal in 3 games. This is crazy, I don't know if an angel has mistakenly put too much talent in a player? I highly sure Southampton will win this game."

The goal did surprise Leicester. They didn't expect less than 10 minutes Southampton would score. George's tactics was succes as well as the good implementation of the Southampton players make this team really a team that could beat any team in the English league.

Furthermore, Leicester started kick-off again. A job Leicester had to complete was to find a way to send passes to the front line. Because if they don't, then they will only control the ball in their defense and end up making a mistakes. Mistakes like that will certainly be used as well as possible Southampton.

Long passes coule be a solution but the problem was that among Leicester players, there are no players who have high accuracy in long passes.

Plus even if the accuracy of the long pass was good, how could their forwards win the aerial duel? Okazaki clearly has no physical advantage over Okhalo and Jimmy. Mahrez? It was difficult. Hugo might be able to win the duel against Ben Carter. But in a 4-3-2-1 formation, Hugo also had to face Rudolf or Orlando in addition to Ben Carter.

In the 16th minute, Drinkwater sent a pass towards Hugo. The former Southampton player received the ball but two Southampton players immediately surrounded him. He tried to keep the ball but failed, Orlando got the ball from Hugo's feet then sent it to Rudolf.

Rudolf then dribbled forward and then crossed to Simone as Drinkwater approached. Simone burst past Ayoze and took the ball forward. On the right, Winlsey Hart ran fast towards the right side of Leicester.

Simone provided a through ball to Winlsey Hart. The young man beat Soeyuecue and managed to break into the Leicester penalty box. After that he gave the ball to Bennett.. Bennett who also broke into the Leicester penalty box immediately gave a strong kick. Too bad the shot was missed the net