Is Kasper Schmeichel or defence the problem on set-pieces?

Leicester City’s club captain Kasper Schmeichel – along with many others at the club – suffered a very disappointing campaign last season.

Back-to-back fifth placed finishes for the East Midlands side as well as falling outside of European qualification seemed to be a significant step back. While there are many possible causes for this relative failure, anyone who watched LCFC throughout the 2021/22 season will point to one particular area in which the team were extremely poor in, and that was defending set-pieces.

Therefore, this now bodes the question of who is at fault for this glaring weakness in the side. Is it one of City’s most senior leaders and first-team goalkeeper Schmeichel? Or the defensive set-up that lies in front of him? Defending corners was the area in which Schmeichel and the defence most struggled throughout the duration of the 21/22, conceding  from16 corners in the Premier League – an increase of nearly 80% from the year prior – any increase that large is a massive red flag and has rightly so raised questions of the captains role in this.

But, the Foxes also conceded from a corner in the final game of the season which saw Danny Ward in net. So that may be an indicator to how in fact it is the defensive set-up and not totally the fault of the City’s number one.

It was the running joke throughout the whole of the last campaign of how inept Leicester were at dealing with any corner kick. Especially in-swinging corners which in particular gave the City captain problems, due to his unwillingness and perhaps – as the season progressed – lack of confidence coming to claim the ball.