Are there any positives to take from Leicester’s previous game?

The players gained confidence from their performances, particularly once getting the equaliser. I thought that Leicester City were deserving winners, David Moyes’ side showed very few threatening moments despite taking the lead — had they asserted themselves on the fixture in that moment, they could’ve ran away with it. But, credit where it’s due, the Foxes didn’t let them do that.

Perhaps an unfortunate denominator is the performances from set-pieces, which underpin the positives and make Leicester City still a fragile team. In the Premier League, clubs average 6.5 corners per game, which currently acts as a very likely chance of scoring versus the Foxes. You can perform admirably for 90 minutes and have that thrown away by a moment of poor defending, which is currently happening with too much frequency.

The debate regarding the final substitution is actually quite interesting. Youri Tielemans was replaced in the 89th minute by Jannik Vestergaard, as Rodgers said in his post-match interview, a way of containing the onslaught from the Hammers to close the game out — particularly from eventual goal-scorer Craig Dawson. But, in the three previous corners, Leicester City had managed to nullify any threats — so, why make the change?

That’s the question from the Foxes fan base, but, realistically, having a defender with as much height (6ft6 to be precise) as the Dane, shouldn’t hinder the performance from set-pieces, even with his below par aerial dual success rate for his height. He’s an unquestionable upgrade on the Belgian he replaced for those scenarios. However, where I do agree, is that had Tielemans remained on the field, could Leicester held onto possession better and limited the amount of set-pieces the conceded? That I do believe is true.

In some ways, the substitution felt reminiscent of the “overly cautious” defensive changes Rodgers has consistently done throughout his tenure, much to the frustration of myself and many others. But, it also felt like a smart adaption to the change of tactics from Moyes — playing Craig Dawson (a centre-back) as a de facto forward. Regardless, the result is the same. Leicester City let a late lead slip and drop increasingly important points.

I suppose the takeaway from this article is positive, there’s definitely scope for the Foxes to build this performance into result for the remainder of the season. Game management, set-pieces, and naivety will continue to limit the potential output of this squad, but, that’s Rodgers’ job to fix these problems and his job security will rely on how he solves them.