KING POWER STADIUM — Given the mess at Manchester United, there’s something wonderfully fitting about Brendan Rodgers being linked to their manager’s job at precisely the time his blip at Leicester City is slipping into a slump. Against Arsenal three weeks ago, Leicester conceded early from a set piece, conceded again shortly after and were then left to forlornly chase the game to no little effect. The only noticeable difference against Chelsea was the volume of the boos at half-time.
The first half on Saturday was as abject as it gets. Leicester made mistakes in possession and the fans groan. They take too long to play out from the back and the fans groan. So they look forward quickly and act surprised that Jamie Vardy is isolated; again the fans groan. By that point they’re already two goals down and another home game is lost. The only question is whether it gets any worse.
It began with Leicester conceding from a simple set-piece routine, because that is what this Leicester team do. An inswinging corner is delivered into the penalty box, and the opposition’s biggest central defender makes a run to the front post; nobody follows him. That defender rises to meet the ball; nobody jumps with him. Kasper Schmeichel looks on helplessly, motionless for a second. Then he holds out his arms to ask why none of his team-mates are getting this by now.
Pavlov’s Dog would at least have blocked Antonio Rudiger’s run.
After Gabriel Paulista had become the seventh player to score from a set piece against Leicester, Rodgers was asked about the problem. “If you analyse the Premier League, there’s a lot of set-pieces going in from the front post area,” Rodgers said. “It’s not just us, it’s other teams.”
That’s a remarkable answer for a man who fully understands the value of savvy PR. Firstly, no team does it as badly or as often as Leicester, hence the question. Also, Rodgers appears wedded to his complete zonal marking system despite the repeated failures using it. Finally, Leicester City supporters care about Leicester City and, at that moment, Rodgers is speaking to them. Some are getting a little itchy at the inability to solve – or even ease – such an obvious organisational issue.
But it’s not just the set-piece defending. Leicester’s chance creation has dropped from last season; they didn’t have a shot against Chelsea until close to the hour mark. They seem uncertain about their preferred style of attacking, sometimes playing slowly and sometimes looking for quick counter attacks but never quite managing to have everyone on the same page while doing it. They are a team that reflects their supporters’ current mood: general flatness pockmarked by moments of panic and spiky only when protesting refereeing decisions (all of which on Saturday were correct).
The usual diagnosis here is to blame poor confidence, football’s magic elixir. Win a couple of league games, even through grubby means, and the same mistakes disappear. Confidence both relies upon and breeds better communication, better technique and better poise.
But there is another theory: that Rodgers is an architect of the troubles as well as the solutions. His team have played four formations in 11 league games. They have played with two strikers and with one. James Maddison and Harvey Barnes have been in and out of the team. They play with wing-backs who don’t really get forward and with a central midfield that is suddenly too easy to play through. What any team hit by absentees craves is stability; there is little here.
There are flickers of mitigation. Leicester have suffered with multiple injuries from August onwards. In their current poor run they have faced Arsenal, Spartak Moscow, Manchester City, Manchester United and Napoli. But then these are the opponents by which we have grown accustomed to judging Leicester City. And their issues seem so endemic, so founded in basic principles, that there is no guarantee that a more gentle opponent will not expose them.
By full-time, the atmosphere at the King Power was thick with unease, a low grumble that comes only when supporters feel short-changed by the effort and quality on display. They do not expect a team that wins every week, but they do insist that they compete and they would like some evidence that the obvious snags are being addressed. Leicester’s defending is indefensible. They are too easy to ruffle, to pass through and, ultimately, to beat.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3qZAA9R
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