On a blustery day in ‘The black country’ Leicester City succumbed to yet another away defeat as their season continued to slip away into obscurity, so what did we learn from this latest black mark?
Playing better but not where it counts
One of the positives on a disappointing day was the general play from the Foxes. They sought to attack in key areas and push Wolves back down the flanks. There was some good battling in midfield and creative nous from players like Ademola Lookman as they created decent openings in and around the penalty area.
Marc Albrighton made an excellent run off Youri Tielemans to give Lookman his tap-in equaliser and there were other moments but it seems at the moment unless the goal is open, Leicester seems unlikely to be scoring.
Youri Tielemans and Patson Daka hit a few nice shots at goal, but they were comfortably saved by Jose Sa. In total LCFC managed 17 shots but only seven of them hit the target with some truly dreadful finishes from Youri, James Maddison and Lookman.
The achilles-heel of defence wasn’t as woeful as it normally is with Caglar Soyuncu showing improvement in clearing crosses. The real problem was in two key moments when Wolves’ players hit two half-decent long-range shots that were met with a lethargic block (and dare I say it ‘let’s not get injured before my big summer move’ challenge) that led directly to goals.
Kasper Schmeichel was unsighted for both which may explain the slow reaction, but the King Power outfit defenders were doing nothing to throw their bodies on the line. You can play well, but if your finishing lacks finesse and your defence aren’t blocking shots then losing games will be inevitable.
European qualification won’t be coming from the league position
Leicester’s best hope of European qualification is now surely the Europa Conference league with the assumed qualifiable place to be 6th now 15 points ahead of the foxes and disappearing quickly with every poor result. Danish side Randers will be put to bed on Thursday in the second leg (surely??) and it will be on to the next round. But with the form the way it is at the moment are any LCFC fans confident of playing any teams of higher quality in the later rounds?
Add this to the alarming tradition of Brendan Rodgers last two seasons’ frightening drop-off in form that has led to them sliding out of seemingly nailed-on Champions League places. There will be no such European problems this season, but with Leicester City nine points off the relegation places as things stand they will want to get to that 40 point mark sooner rather than later to avoid an unthinkable and disastrous end to a poor season.
Leicester City boss doesn’t know what to do with last seasons top scorer
The one positive of last season was the emergence of Kelechi Iheanacho to superhuman levels of goal scoring. He single-handedly got the east Midlanders to an FA Cup final and scored important goals. Yet this season he has once again been cast aside in favour of a more traditional No.9 in Patson Daka.
The Zambia international had a tricky day at Molineux making mistimed runs and not being able to put pressure on a well-oiled Wolves defence comfortable playing out from the back. Daka couldn’t get into the game and although Kelechi didn’t do much himself when he eventually came on, Brendan’s complete lack of interest in finding a way into the team for a player that can actually score goals is annoying. Perhaps Brendan wasn’t impressed with Iheanacho’s contribution in his last start (the City Ground horror show) even though he scored.
There has to be a way to find a place for the Nigerian, Brendan may be forgetting that Iheanacho was used next to Jamie Vardy last season. A partnership with Daka needs considering or the Nigeria forward will be asking to move on in the summer – giving Leicester a further recruitment headache.