JibrinGary Rowett shares Caleb Okoli verdict following mixed display from Leicester City star
Caleb Okoli made his presence felt at both ends of the pitch as Leicester City battled to a 1-1 draw
Gary Rowett admitted ‘there was lots to like’ in Leicester City’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.
The Foxes turned in a spirited, gritty performance against a side sitting second in the Championship and even broke the deadlock when Caleb Okoli fired the visitors ahead in the first half.
However, the defender gave away possession as Boro grabbed a stoppage time equaliser and while City were pushed back for spells in the second period, they fought hard and merited something from their efforts.
Rowett was pleased with plenty of what he witnessed at The Riverside, how Okoli recovered after his blunder and told BBC Leicester Sport: “On the back of the Stoke effort for a lot of players to have to go again with that type of energy, it was a real test. It’s a real test here, they open you up, they pull you around, they’re very good in in possession of the ball.
“I thought defensively we were really good for the most part. We switched off probably two or three times, one first half, one for the goal, and I think that was a disappointment.
“We make a mistake for the goal obviously to get into such a good position and maybe at one minute to go you accept that perhaps Caleb probably should go longer.
“But he reacted really, really well to it. It was an honest mistake, and then he had a lot to do after that.
“I thought we started really well in shape, we worked a lot on how to stop them playing through us. If they needed to do it, they go round us.
“We won quite a lot of ball in the middle of the pitch. I think our challenge was we had probably out of 25 transition moments, we probably only really connected seven or eight times to get up the pitch.
“That was our challenge. We maybe just kept giving the ball away in those moments and they’re the bits that make the difference.
“The second half it was more of the same, once again there were some good bits. Maybe we just ran out of a little bit of energy at one point, I thought, around 70 minutes.
“I was a bit concerned that Bobby [De Cordova-Reid] obviously hasn’t started for a little bit. Stephy [Mavididi] looked like he was just running [out], Divine [Mukasa] the same, and some of those players that you need to get you up the pitch with the quality lost a little bit.
“We’re having to make those changes and sometimes maybe we’re plugging gaps with really good honest players, but maybe just not like for like in those positions.
“So we lost a little bit of momentum, but then probably finished the game the stronger team as well. There’s lots to like about the performance.”
Jibrin
