When Tom Cleverley spoke after Argyle’s 2-0 defeat at Leicester City, he repeated a phrase a couple of times, and when he did so, you could see the frustration on his face.
‘Opportunity missed’.
Despite their slow start to life in Sky Bet League One, Leicester would still be among many people’s favourites for the division this season. However, they have a well-known style of play, which Cleverley and Argyle clearly identified.
The Pilgrims pressed high, and caused no end of issues for the Foxes as the home side looked to meticulously play out for the back. Leicester had lost their goalkeeper, Jakub Stolarczyk, in the first minute of the game, and his replacement Alex McCarthy looked ill at ease when trying to implement their tactics.
Time and again, Argyle pounced, and won the ball back in and around Leicester’s area. The home supporters voiced their concern, then sounded howls of derision. However, the trouble was, Argyle could not transfer their strong positions into chances, let alone goals.
When Leicester went forward, they looked classy, and they missed a couple of chances of their own. That said, it looked for all the world like the game would be goalless at half-time, until in injury-time – the time added on for Stolarczyk’s injury – Leicester scored through Will Alves, whose shot probably would have been saved by Murphy Cooper, only for Alex Mitchell’s attempted block to unluckily deflect the ball into the net, via the crossbar.
Within moments, it was 2-0. Argyle had not settled after the goal, and were open when Cooper parried Sammy Braybrooke’s effort into the path of Harry Howell, who slotted in. In the blink of an eye, Leicester were two up, and that is the way it stayed.
Argyle brought on Matty Sorinola and Oli Irow at half-time, and the second period started brightly for Argyle. However, the breakthrough was not forthcoming. In the closing stages, McCarthy made up for his dithering feet with some wonderful saves with his hands, denying Argyle even a consolation goal. It was not, and never was, to be.
It was hard for Cleverley to hide his disappointment. That said, why should he hide it? It is hard to imagine anyone with green-and-white sympathies to feel anything else.
“There's an overwhelming feeling of: opportunity missed,” Cleverley told Argyle TV.
“I think if you can come anywhere and turn the ball over, create turnovers in their box five or six times in the first 40 minutes, you expect that to end in goals. We got the press bit right.
“We unfortunately didn't get the transition bit right - and not even close.
“[I’d like to say] we'll work on it. We don't have any time to work on it. It's the nature of the beast in League One. They're a group of players who desperately need some training pitch work. We just won't have that time till next week.
“For a large period in the middle of the game, we didn't show anywhere near our best version, and we still could have scored three in the last ten minutes. It’s a massive opportunity missed.
“They’re a good side. When it looks all free flowing, it's great. They've got some top young players. But, today, we certainly forced them into making mistakes, and we didn't capitalise on them.
“We were nowhere near the best we can be, from a with-the-ball perspective, in the first half. We could have got in against the league favourites, 0-0, and probably should have. We defended our box well up to the 46th minute. One followed another and you've got a mountain to climb.
“We showed, I thought, a response in the second half. Substitutes making good impact, giving some headaches for the weekend. But the final product tonight just wasn't there.
“Yeah, there were some strong messages at half-time. I think the players have set a standard that we live and die by - and that first half wasn't it. The message would have been the same even if it was 0-0.
“We wasted a first half of football - or wasted a lot of opportunities in a first half of football. Some of those openings in the first half didn't even result in shots on their goal. We have to improve in those actions.”
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You can watch Tom Cleverley’s Leicester City reaction on Argyle TV, in full, here.
