Decoding Leicester City’s main problems – Part one

The serrated delicacy of Leicester City is testing the patience of fervent watchers. The indomitable nature of the side’s varied sets of issues is worrying.

Let us first begin with where we stand. So Leicester City has dropped down in the UEFA Europa Conference League. Domestically they remain at twelfth in the Premier League. Both the English cup competitions remain alive for them. But this is not up to the acceptable standards of the outfit.

The Foxes should reside around the fifth position regardless of their improvements or depletion. So why are they tailing behind? The easy answer would be due to their shambolic lacklustre defense. It seems that the King Power club never draws learning lessons from their painful defeats. Repetition of similar costly errors has become the second nature of this Brendan Rodgers‘ side.

Most of the times where the East Midlands side has managed a positive result, those rare moments have been due to the individual brilliance of certain players. Those players have shown grit and determination above the rest in particular games to fight their right for gathering three points. On the other hand, conversely, we have witnessed some shocking displays of passive defending taking centre stage. With half-littered errors and questionable plays, they had leaked goals.

Hit and miss in Leicester City’s recruitments

The fans were not expecting a transition immediately after winning their first FA Cup in the club’s history. The side looked promising. Rodgers and his staff had cherrypicked their choices in bringing in two defenders from a side that is infamous for conceding nine goals in their last two seasons. Apart from that, cash was exchanged in return for two prospects: a red-hot Zambian along with a Ligue 1 winning CDM. The side was looking promising to crack the top four ceiling on their third attempt.

After Wesley Fofana’s untimed injury, the club was provoked to stoop into panic buys. They thought to invest their purse into shielding the defense rather than look for the vacant mantle left behind at the right-wing spot. The reading of Jannik Vestergaard has been slow. His sluggish frame has been susceptible to numerous errors, due to which he has been dropped from featuring. His fellow defender at Southampton also came in for free.

Ryan Bertrand looked better in the initial opportunities. However, with time, Rodgers found out that he did not fit into his formulation – the hard way. Such purchases have landed a lot of scrutiny by the fanbase as Leicester City was known for conducting intelligent business.

Issues with what City already have

Çağlar Söyüncü has lost his appeal at the club. We can easily find many more competent defenders across the league than the Turkish brute. Without Jonny Evans, he remains clueless. He was responsible for misplaced passes that led to goals (especially in the West Ham game). Söyüncü is not quick-witted and not a player you can trust when he is without a backline leader. Evans is our best bet, who has a recurring issue with his foot fracture. So what could have been already a challenging task becomes more daunting with these individuals.

Many fans have recently argued in favor of Kasper Schmeichel. According to the most number of saves, he ranks the best around the league. Is it a thing to be proud of? With the east Midlands outfit’s inability to nullify threats, the opposition has many easy chances to bury the ball into the back of the net. Dealing with far more shots than any other side with a good defense, Kasper is responsible for saving a lot more than everybody else. At the same time, he is also responsible for letting many of them in.

Many clubs adopt to appoint a set-piece coach. With the rapid pace and physicality of the game, it is advisable to have a good knowledge of breaking down plays with statistics and data. A set-piece coach takes care of studying patterns of each opposition and making his side aware of dealing with those conditional plays in the pitch. Surprisingly Leicester City after all of their misery with set-pieces are yet to appoint someone.