On a scorching afternoon in North London, Leicester City succumbed to an expected and familiar result. And that turns up the heat on boss Brendan Rodgers!
The refresh Brendan seeks is nowhere to be seen
Following last season’s defeat to Nottingham Forest, Brendan Rodgers suggested that there would need to be a refresh of the playing squad. Then in the summer, when learning of the club’s reluctance to spend cash, Rodgers adjusted his original assertion to claim he meant a reset of the club’s culture and values. But two games in and nothing seems to have changed from last season.
City have a soft underbelly and were an even softer touch against a resurgent Arsenal. They were easy to bully off the ball with players like Wesley Fofana feeling the physicality of the excellent Gabriel Martinelli. Rodgers constantly tells us how his teams like to press and attack the ball with aggression but we are yet to see that make an appearance this season and in truth, it’s not something that reared its head much last season either. It could be the heat is making that a tricky ask but once again the opposition seemed to manage the conditions better over the 90 minutes.
The team seems passive and almost too relaxed going into games, reflecting the manager’s calm and relaxed touchline demeanour. LCFC seem to let games pass them by these days as the opposition grow in confidence and smell the blood of a weak-willed adversary. All the problems we see, are the same problems we’ve had since last season and before, nothing is changing and that’s before we even mention the defence.
Defensive mistakes not taken seriously enough by coaches
It’s important to note that Gabriel Jesus is a fantastic attacking threat and it was only natural that the Match of the Day highlights would note the brilliance in his two goals and overall performance. But from an LCFC point-of-view, it’s an all too familiar and infuriating story that shows no sign of changing under the Northern-Irish boss. Considering Daniel Amartey unfairly took all of the brunt of the Brentford result, I’ve decided to break down each goal to demonstrate how many problems there really are amongst the squad.
Goal One – Likely analysis – Gabriel Jesus excellently chips Danny Ward inside the box. The reality – Jonny Evans allows the Brazilian way too much time and space to pick his spot.
Goal two – likely analysis – Daniel Amartey goes to sleep and leaves Jesus unmarked at the back post. The reality – Amartey should be doing better and Jamie Vardy should have cleared the ball instead of flicking it on and increasing the danger.
Goal three – likely analysis – Danny Ward drops a clanger by not holding the ball and presents Granit Xhaka with an easy goal. The reality – Very much this but also note Wesley Fofana’s strange open-armed move towards his goalkeeper that didn’t help matters at all.
Goal four – likely analysis – Dennis Praet gives the ball away leading directly to Martinelli’s goal The reality – Not entirely true, Praet tries to cleverly spin into a received pass but allows Gabriel Martinelli to steal the ball before Wesley Fofana misjudges Gabriel Jesus return pass to Martinelli that makes it easy for him to get his strike on goal.
Away from these goals, Evans was spun easily by Jesus and the Brazilian constantly found space and could easily have had as many as 5 goals. Make no mistake about it, 4-2 was kind on Leicester City.
Brendan Rodgers used the excuse last season that the profile of the player wasn’t right amidst the injuries he was battling against. When the types of profiles like Jonny Evans and 100-million pound rated defenders like Wesley Fofana are making this many errors how long is it before we start looking at how they are coached? If Leicester doesn’t fix this problem soon they can consign themselves to mid-table mediocrity or maybe even worse.
Leicester City players’ desire not lacking, but is lacking in coaching & tactics
I feel for Rodgers, having to cope with the injuries he has, the success he has achieved should not be forgotten with an FA Cup in the cabinet forever. But it seems this season all his eggs were in one basket and with the absence of Ricardo Pereira, he feels he has had to abandon his desire and entire pre-season to play four at the back. This seems a bit strange as Timothy Castagne is an excellent right-back that should easily be able to slot into a strong back four alongside Evans, Fofana and James Justin.
It seems that the absence of Harvey Barnes might be driving this tactical shift more, but that was only one left winger, who was supposed to be playing on the right-hand side? Ayoze Perez has played in that area before with decent results, particularly in the 2019/2020 season. Could Dennis Praet be accommodated out wide, or the pacy Patson Daka?
Additionally, we have seemingly isolated Jamie Vardy who has been invisible for much of the first two games. Kelechi Iheanacho – the club’s top scorer in 2020-2021 – came off the bench in this game to great effect, supporting Patson Daka up top, picking up pockets of space and brilliantly setting up James Maddison with a reverse pass before that the Leicester No.10 fired through Aaron Ramsdale’s legs.
But these tactical changes seem too late when the game is moving out of reach. Why not notice it’s not working early on and make those changes quicker? Once again games just seem to pass Brendan by. It can’t keep continuing like this through the season and Brendan can’t persevere with a plan B for 6 months whilst he waits for Ricardo Pereira to return. He has to show desire in his own plans and players and their abilities and act quicker when it isn’t working, otherwise it won’t be his decision to make.
He defensively went back at Owynn Palmer-Atkin on BBC Radio Leicester who suggested the desire of the players might be lacking. If he could show that same passion when in the dugout we might start seeing a turnaround because at the moment this isn’t good enough.