Leicester City have taken two points from a possible six since the return of Premier League football, after back-to-back draws with Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford.
Brendan Rodgers and Leicester would have seen both sides as beatable, but both clubs have found impressive patches of form under their respective managers, Graham Potter and Nigel Pearson.
The more recent fixture, a dismal, goalless draw at home to Brighton is the more concerning of the two games – Leicester looked bereft of any confidence, perhaps it was the knock-on effect of conceding a last minute equaliser only three days prior.
This lack of confidence was truly highlighted by a smart, incisive and quick transitional side such as Brighton. Which was encapsulated by debutant, Tariq Lamptey, who made his full Premier League appearance after leaving Chelsea earlier this season.
Lamptey had the confidence to beat his man in every one-on-one scenario, offensively or defensively. He completed five out of his six attempted dribbles in the game, and three of his four tackles – the entire starting XI for Leicester only managed to complete five dribbles in the full 90 minutes.
Unfortunately for the Foxes, confidence is integral to Rodgers’ style of football. It’s undoubtedly important for every team to play with confidence, but there’s an added emphasis on it when playing the way Leicester City do.
Everyone is aware that Rodgers has the Foxes playing a distinct possession-orientated style of football, with an impetus on rotating the ball from either flank awaiting an opportunity to progress it safely. This relies on stretching the oppositions structure by playing the ball quickly from either side, hopefully opening a half space for Leicester’s creative players to capitalise on.
When the opportunity arises to progress the play, confidence is a crucial ingredient in ensuring the progressive play is successful. Advancing the play happens most commonly in one of two ways – a line-breaking pass or successfully dribbling past the opponent in a one-on-one, both of these actions require confidence to complete.
Unfortunately for the Foxes, whenever these chances occurred, the player in possession of the ball lacked the confidence to seize the opportunity and would favour an alternative option, either passing the ball horizontally or backwards.
It was this mentality that stagnated the usually free-flowing football Leicester City tend to produce, in fact as a stark contrast, the opening 10-15 minutes in the game against Watford were a great example of Rodgers’ ideologies been implemented successfully – so, what’s changed since Saturday afternoon?
Everyone can agree, playing football behind closed doors is a different experience for all those involved. Fans would make the case it’s them being impacted the most, to which I can definitely see the argument – but this is also negatively impacting the players, especially when playing as the home-side.
Players aren’t receiving the same levels of support, nor getting the gratification when doing something for the team. In any other fixture, Kasper Schmeichel’s penalty save would have swung the pendulum in Leicester City’s favour from the momentum of the home fans, but instead the atmosphere was flat and the game continued at the same speed and dynamic.
Instead, players will take to social media to see how the fans are reacting to their performances – and every knows the fickle nature of social media. One mistake receives so many horrible comments and this will start to negatively impact the players, more so than when they get to perform in front of 32,000 fans at King Power stadium every other week.
The impetus is on the fans to support the players from home, to try and reinstall that confidence that was so apparent at the start of this season. With that being said, this patch of poor performances shouldn’t last for the remainder of the season.
Looking ahead to the Chelsea match, I fully expect Rodgers to revert to his favoured 4-1-4-1, as the narrow formation struggled to provide any problems for Brighton. For me, it’ll more than likely be Harvey Barnes and Ayoze Perez occupying the wings, as unfortunately, Demarai Gray didn’t capitalise on his chance in the starting XI.
The result isn’t a massive concern, the Foxes need to rekindle the chemistry and performances before scrutinising the results. When the performances have been sorted, the results will follow.