Leicester City: “We missed Drinkwater” admits Claudio Ranieri

Leicester City boss admitted that his side was lacking Danny Drinkwater’s presence in midfield as the foxes scraped a point at the King Power yesterday.

Leicester City were lucky to come away from yesterday evening’s match against Middlesborough with a point to their name, following Slimani’s late equalising penalty.

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The foxes were thoroughly outplayed as they went behind twice to Middlesborough, both times at the hands of ex Manchester City man Álvaro Negredo.

Perhaps Leicester City underestimated Negredo’s ability.

Prior to the match, the Spaniard had only scored 1 goal all season, however he always had faith in his goalscoring abilities.

Speaking to Middlesborough’s club website, Negredo said prior to the match:

"“From a selfish point of view, a striker always feels better after scoring goals – it raises your confidence and everything goes with it,”"

"“I have always put trust in my own ability. Now I have a team behind me who want to help me and believe in that too.”"

After the match it was clear that Negredo was not just pandering to the fans, he believed what he was saying.

But was it his ability and belief that allowed him to walk all over the foxes or did Leicester cause their own downfall?

In midfield Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri elected to go with the pairing of Daniel Amartey and Andy King, a pairing that on paper looks like it could work well.

Amartey would prefer to stay back and defend and Andy King would prefer to go forward into the attack.

A trait that Leicester City fans know all too well as King is Leicester’s all time leading goalscorer from midfield.

However Drinkwater’s 3 match ban became all too apparent, despite the pairing of Amartey and King working well on paper.

With nobody to hold the ball in midfield, coupled with no leader to instruct who and when to close down, Leicester City were facing an uphill battle from the start.

Speaking on the performance, Ranieri said:

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"“The performance wasn’t good and they played better than us, but I’m very happy with our character to believe until the end that something good could happen,”"

"“We showed fantastic spirit. I knew – and so did all my players – that this was a tough match.”"

"“It’s strange because Middlesbrough played well and kept a lot of possession of the ball but we created more chances than them.”"

"“It’s difficult to analyse this match. They played so well. We missed Drinkwater of course and it was very difficult after playing a match in the Champions League.”"

Claudio went on to speak about how motivation for the Premier League may have dropped following their inclusion in the Champions League, Europe’s most prestigious club level competition.

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"“When teams similar play for the first time in Europe they always lose something in the Premier League . But for us now it’s important to think we are in the battle for relegation and then every point is okay.”"