It’s not an easy watch at the moment for Leicester City fans, Brendan Rodgers’ side crashed out the UEFA Europa League midweek – by fielding a weakened XI ahead of Arsenal. But, the Premier League fixture offered even more misery for the Foxes.
A patchwork starting XI saw Brendan Rodgers field Kelechi Iheanacho as the “#10” in place of the injured James Maddison. The Nigerian’s experience of leading the line allowed rotations into a 4-4-2 (alongside Jamie Vardy) whilst pressing for Leicester City.
In a similar vein to the SK Slavia Praha game, the Foxes looked exhausted. The press wasn’t effective, the passing out of defence struggled to progress without the structure of Maddison’s movement in the #10. The focus of playing through the pivot (Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans) then either into the full-backs or the #10 wasn’t possible and that caused a suffocation inside the defensive third.
Even the opening goal – which was taken by Youri Tielemans – was a mistake from Arsenal with regards to defensive decision-making. Jamie Vardy’s gravity (i.e. how impactful he can be thus causing defensive players to “gravitate” towards him) attracted three Arsenal defenders – freeing up the space for Tielemans to surge into a score. It was an excellent finish.
In all honesty, that was a slight glimmer of hope, as the Gunners were always the better of the two sides. Within this, they targeted Luke Thomas at left-back, as the tricky foot-work of Nicolas Pépé was causing great difficulty for the 19-year-old to deal with. Consequently, his yellow card forced Rodgers’ hand at half-time – introducing Marc Albrighton.
It was a couple of set-pieces that turned the tie around for Arsenal. Initially it was the poor defensive structure from Leicester City and not tracking the runners from a free-kick (which was won via a Pépé dribble and foul from Thomas). Ndidi, who almost conceded a penalty earlier in the half, was correctly judged to have block an incoming shot with his arm – and thus Alexandre Lacazette dispatched the resulting penalty.
If the injury list wasn’t already overwhelming for the Foxes, Harvey Barnes and Jonny Evans also picked up injuries during the second-half. Rodgers has disclosed that Barnes requires surgery on his knee – expected to miss six weeks of actions (in my opinion that’ll be at least three-to-four months). There hasn’t been an update on Evans as of yet.
The two injuries didn’t just lower the quality of the XI on the pitch, they knocked the confidence of all the other individuals. It’s perhaps unsurprising that the two players chosen to replace the injured players – Cengiz Ünder and Daniel Amartey, both performed admirably when compared to the other Foxes’ players – spotting a chance to puncture the starting XI.
Overall, it was absent of the all basics required to succeed in football. The pressing lacked any conviction – mainly due to fatigue, there wasn’t a single passing lane for the defence/Kasper Schmeichel to utilise. It was a shocking game of football from the Foxes and I can’t overlook the fixture congestion being a crucial component of the downfall.
Rodgers’ selection for Wednesday should involve heavy rotations – ensuring those that are still “fit” remain that way. I’d suggest pillaging the U23’s in a couple of areas – Sidnei Tavares, Khenya Leshabela, and Jacob Wakeling to name a few. Jamie Vardy looks like he’s playing at 70% capacity (hence Wakeling), within the current squad we’re lacking an attack-minded central player (such as Tavares), and Youri Tielemans is struggling to play the end-to-end “#8” role week-in-week-out – giving Leshabela a chance.
Regardless of how Rodgers decides his personnel, the outcome has to be three points. The Foxes are showing early signs of another collapse, and while injuries are definitely the nucleus of this, Leicester aren’t the only side losing key players. Yes, the Foxes have been increasingly unfortunate, but the mentality of the players needs to be stronger. They’ve all worked exceptionally hard to put themselves in a place fighting for UEFA Champions League, and to miss out for the second year running would be devastating.