What Rodgers said about possibly dropping his awful zone at Leicester
Leicester City have been leaking goals at an alarming rate conceding 27 goals in 15 matches, 10 of those have come from set-pieces.
The season’s expectation in Europe and in the Premier League were at an all time high when the new footballing calender began. Leicester‘s FA cup triumph at the end of the last season and a dramatic win against Manchester City to lift the Community Shield at Wembley made every Foxes supporter optimistic for the future but it hasn’t been an easy period for Brendan Rodgers.
In the last trip to Villa Park, Rodgers’ team yet again conceded two goals from set pieces. The first goal coming from a free kick while the other from a corner; centre-back Ezri Konsa scored both of them. The visitors were the dominant side in the first half and should have scored more than one goal. However, you really can’t complain when same mistakes are repeated over and over again.
If we look at the total number of goals conceded, which is twenty seven at the moment, only fourteen of them have come from open play. This means if this specific mistake is rectified, LCFC can really challenge for the top six spots but for now 2015/16 PL title holders sit in eleventh position in the bottom half of the table.
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Understandably in the post match interview the gaffer was questioned about the defensive vulnerablilities of his outfit, to which he replied:
"“It’s very fine margins for us at the minute, so if we can get the solutions to that, it’s going to give us more solidity at the back. We’ve always done what we’ve done, I’ve felt comfortable with the ball coming into the box (previously), but we look more vulnerable this season on it. We have to work on it otherwise the fine margins will go against us. We’re in touching distance of where we want to be.”– Brendan Rodgers"
The Northern Irishman is being criticized for his zonal marking tactics during set pieces. Kasper Schmeichel himself has been struggling with this system significantly, now many supporters demand dropping the club captain.
Clearly the best option would be to change the whole process of defending set pieces and reverting back to man-to-man marking. This change of method would surely make the King Power club less exposed, susceptible and would also suit the goalkeeper.
When the former Celtic boss was questioned on finding a solution to the set piece problem he asserted:
"“It’s been constant, a lot of hours into analysing each opponent. You have to do your job as well, you have a responsibilty to mark Konsa because we know he stays out at the back post. We are not being caught out with something really clever, we know Konsa and Mings are their big targets in the box. The first goal is a second phase, so these are undoing a lot of really good work”Reported Leicester Mercury"
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Thursday night’s final Europa League’s group game will be played between the Foxes and Serie A leaders Napoli where a win would see the English side top the group and attain automatic qualification for last sixteen. However, any defensive blunder committed in that match would have huge repercussions on the trajectory of their season.