Roma 1-0 Leicester: 3 Things FoL learned from Rome

Leicester City went crashing out of the Europa Conference League at the Stadio Olympico Thursday evening, thanks to a thunderous header by Tammy Abraham in the 7th minute of the tie.

The Foxes’ first European semi-final might have left some fans with a sour taste in their mouth, after we went out of the competition with little more than a whimper. After the early goal scored by the Englishman, the home side – which is predictable of any Jose Mourinho side – sat in and were content to defend their lead.

Despite large amounts of possession, the East Midlands outfit struggled to create any clear-cut opportunities resorting to shots from distance and balls into a crowded box which were dealt with comfortably by Roma centre halves. LCFC’s night was summed up perfectly with the last shot which could have potentially send it into extra-time. Fans saw another James Maddison free kick fail to beat the first man and the home side easily saw out the rest of the game.

Leicester City desperately need a set-piece coach

It is no secret to Leicester fans or even football fans at this point that the Foxes are massively vulnerable from set-pieces. Whether it be from a corner or free-kick it doesn’t seem to matter. The head-scratching decision to assign five-foot-nine Ricardo Pereira to mark the Yellows and Reds’ record-breaking top goal-scorer and six-foot-five Abraham on corners is a case in point of another poor strategy when defending corners this campaign. A strategic blunder that essentially knocked City out of the Europa Conference League.

Defensive corner tactics have cost Brendan Rodgers’ side dearly throughout the season not only in dropping points, but also completely killing the momentum during games, which is exactly what happened in tonight’s game. LCFC’s bright start came to a screeching halt due to this poor defensive strategy.

Leicester City need to take a leaf out of Arsenal’s playbook many Gunners fans will make the argument that the signing of Nicolas Jover their set-piece coach has been their signing of the season. The North London side have yet to concede form a single corner this campaign, whereas the Foxes, on the other hand, suffered their 17th tonight.

The officiating was abysmal

I never like to lay blame for a loss on officiating, I think that it is an easy way out of assessing why the result may have not gone the way we would have liked. But in this case, I’ll make an exception. If the King Power club’s fans thought the way the first leg was refereed was questionable, to put it politely, second leg officiating left the players, Rodgers and supporters completely dumfounded.

Serbian official Srdjan Jovanović seemed to make bewildering decision after bewildering decision. Starting in the early minutes of the tie when Chris Smalling seemingly manhandled Wesley Fofana to the ground in the Roma box directly in the ref’s eyeline, a decision which VAR deemed not a grand enough error to overturn.

The incomprehensible adjudicating did not end there, the first half was full of inconsistencies in regard to what Jovanović was willing to blow for and when he allowed play to continue. One instance that really stuck in the mind was the strong challenge by Jamie Vardy on Roger Ibañez, in which the Leicester talisman clearly won the ball with his sliding tackle directly in front of the linesman.

Maybe the most egregious of the bunch came just before 90th minute when Leicester were chasing the game, second-half substitute Ayoze Pérez having beaten Gianluca Mancini by the left corner of the pitch back heeled the ball off the Roma centre back in order to win his side a late corner. Though Jovanović somehow did not see it this way and gave the home side a goal kick and another chance to waste precious minutes off the clock.

Ademola Lookman is not the solution to our “right-sided problem”

Although this may seem obvious to some, and in fact Rodgers did finally realise this half-way through the season. That is after continuing to try and shoehorn the Nigerian international onto the right-hand side, in order to play him and Barnes at the same time. Lookman has clear abilities as an attacking forward, yet on the right-hand side his game becomes too predictable. He continuously backs into his marker to either play a wall pass and spin off or to simply roll his defender.

This was a constant theme in his first half performance in Rome, Ibañez frequently had locked the winger in front of him giving the centre half a much simpler task than the first leg. In which the loanee stretched the Brazilian by making runs beyond him from inside the two centrebacks, not on the outside where it is easier to manage.

Lookman inconsistencies to have an impact on the game is the reason why he can’t be relied upon to play down the right-hand side, despite having immense ability. The 24-year-old needs a more defined role in the side, like it had been for the last few months as competition for Barnes on the left or as a super sub, like when the winger came on to score the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Liverpool, at the King Power earlier in the season.