Given the recent form, it felt like a trudge for many Foxes fans to visit the King Power Stadium and watch an out-of-form Leicester City. The result was surprisingly positive but the performance had some familiar feelings to it.
Jamie Vardy is an issue
Early on in this game, the Brighton crowd in the corner of the King Power stadium ticked the box of LCFC game tradition by mocking Jamie Vardy’s wife for her recent courtroom dramas. It happens in virtually every game the foxes are in and has been going on for a couple of seasons. What we’ve lacked this season is a response from the man himself. Those goals followed by a cupping of the ear to said mocking fans have wilted, and with it so has Vardy’s form.
With the Seagulls established as a flair team that enjoys cutting through teams, Vardy was deployed in a deeper lying role to cut off space to midfielders Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister and for the large part, it worked. Brighton struggled to cut Leicester open through the middle and were forced to attack out wide throughout. Vardy essentially occupied space doing little more than a half-press so as not to leave space in midfield, but is this how far the former England international has fallen?
There was little hold-up play to bring others into the game and when he received the ball he was bullied off it quickly, even being flattened at one point after an unexpected Barnes pass. We saw very few off-the-shoulder runs and little aggression to wind up the opposition players other than an off-the-ball incident just before he was subbed. Another game passed him by without not only a goal but even a shot anywhere toward the onion bag. Dropping him would be a lot easier with a viable replacement but Patson Daka’s form has also plummeted, leaving Brendan Rodgers unable to answer his huge problem.
Jamie Vardy’s lack of form is no recent finding. He has been poor for the last 2 seasons and the seemingly indestructible Premier League legend is producing diminishing returns as he nears the end of a remarkable career. His one league goal this season was a tap-in that even Nampalys Mendy might score. Let’s just hope we get to see Vardy cupping his ear towards banter fuelled opposition fans a few more times before the inevitable happens – which I suspect could be this summer.
Leicester City were lucky to get a point
Teams down the bottom scrabbling around for positives tend to bemoan their luck and significant lack of it. It was a staple of Nigel Pearson’s one rollercoaster Premier League season, but there was truth to it. The fear with this Leicester team is that there are no poor luck stories just a lot of poor players.
But Leicester might want to thank the footballing gods as goals and incidents seemed to go their way in this match. Early on Jan Paul Van Hecke somehow headed over from the goal-line before deservedly taking the lead their possession dominance deserved. Harvey Barnes again had one of his odd performances, moving into dangerous areas and getting the crowd on their feet by racing into wide areas, but predictably cutting inside to leave you wanting. Then LCFC got slightly lucky after Barnes and Youri Tielemans both had shots consecutively blocked before the ball fell kindly to Marc Albrighton to equalise and slot in his first goal of the season.
In the second half, Danny Welbeck had a decent shout for a penalty ignored by the officials as he appeared to be clipped by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. This was followed by a glaring miss from Solly March who skied the ball into the family stand from 10 yards with the goal at his mercy. Not long later March was cursing his luck again after a decent corner flicked off his shoulder towards the unmarked Barnes, who powered his first Premier League goal in since November.
Brighton’s goals were well-worked with Kaoru Mitoma a threat throughout producing a lovely first-half finish and a well-placed cross for Evan Ferguson’s late equaliser. Ferguson was eager to get the ball back and restarted, sensing City’s fragile underbelly, but the winning goal never came. Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi bemoaned his team’s lack of a victory given their dominance and on this evidence, he had a point
Relegation is now a real possibility
Following the match, Brendan Rodgers criticised the players again in his own charming way:
"“There’s a number of our players who don’t care enough when they have it. They’re happy to give it away, or not bothered enough to give it away.”"
He may have a point but this was pretty damning coming from the manager as the club heads into a run of Premier League fixtures against teams above them in the league. Rodgers continued his quotes down towards the path of needing more quality in the squad, but surely the amount of quality coming in the next 10 days won’t make a huge improvement given the club’s poor recent transfer history. It’s not pretty reading and is the reason many Leicester City supporters fear their time in the Premier League is coming to an end.
A manager that is unable to work with the players at his disposal is normally not the right man for the job. They are currently three points above the bottom of the table Everton and somehow sit 14th, but don’t get excited that is very likely to worsen. Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Arsenal will all be eyeing up their February fixture with the foxes as an easy victory, and it’s not hard to see why! Not holding on for a victory in this game could prove costly.
The only glimmer of hope was James Maddison’s return to the pitch where his flair and class might earn Leicester City some points they sorely need. That mid-table mediocrity is now nothing more than a dream of a season. Maybe that FA cup fixture with Walsall will provide a much-needed confidence boost.