Leicester 0-2 Everton: 3 Things we learned from Foxes loss

Scoring the first goal at the King Power is crucial

At the end of last season and in the 19th home game Leicester succumbed to their fourth home defeat of the season as they were pushed away from the top 4 places. Leicester have now this season equalled that number of home defeats in only their 7th game at the King Power.

There could be all manner of reasons for this but what is clear is that Leicester are still a confidence team. On Sunday against Brighton the first goal set Leicester off to a swaggering display, whereas against Everton going a goal behind seemed to shoot their confidence. This also adds to the oppositions confidence with teams now more than happy to soak up pressure and hit the foxes on the counter attack. Richarlison’s early shot catching Schmeichel off guard was all the invitation Everton needed to have something to hold onto.

In 19 games at the King Power in 2020, the team that has scored first has gone on to win the game and that stat is starting to be shared more frequently between the home and away teams.

Another factor is that this was Leicester’s third game in six days against an Everton side that had an extra days rest going into this game. Leicester are also suffering still without a whole back 4’s worth of defensive players and made Christian Fuchs play at centre back for the second time in three days.

But no excuses should be made for the forward players, Vardy should be equalising with an easy header and Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Cengiz Under need to be hitting the target better from long range. Two shots on target simply isn’t good enough for any team and will inevitably end in defeat unless you have a tight defence.

Leicester are the worst Premier League team defending set pieces

The good news is that Leicester have a whole raft of strong defensive players at the club, the bad news is that they’re frequently injured or suspended. Tonight Jonny Evans was watching from the bench serving an inevitable one match ban for his collection of yellows. Soyuncu a strong defender in the air is notable by his absence. Castagne adds more aerial strength and Ricardo will be closing down crosses when he returns. So obviously when they return Leicester will stop conceding goals from crosses and particularly set pieces? Not neccessarily.

Soyuncu had already been caught out on crosses when he was playing this season and Evans has mostly been present in many of the seven goals conceded from corners and free kicks. The key seems to be zonal marking and most obviously the lack of any success with it. The common reaction to that would be to simply go man for man. But that does a disservice to the real problem.

The players aren’t attacking the ball when defending and are hampered by a goalkeeper not willing to move from his goal line to help out. This is a problem that won’t go away even when the notable absentees return. This lack of tightness at the back will continue to cause Leicester issues.