Leicester City boss Steve Cooper watched his Foxes team play relatively well in the first half against his former side Nottingham Forest on Friday evening. However, a second half rally from the Tricky Trees saw a two-goal gap develop, with little hint of reply from the home club at King Power Stadium. In fact, the performance from LCFC after the break was fairly woeful all things considered, some of which we shall discuss in this very article.
Elements of Cooper's style and selection probably should be altered or amended following the capitulation versus Forest. There are also bad habits and aspects that many Leicester players must change after losing 3-1 to one of their Midlands rivals. A chance to leap into the top half of the table was wasted by the Leicestershire outfit as well. So what went wrong?
Leicester City's first half performance
There absolutely were facets of the Foxes display to be excited about in the initial 45 minutes. Though, I think commentators and pundits got a bit carried away with quite how convincing Leicester were in that half. Yes, further opportunities were created as opposed to the more important section of the game, which was ultimately lost. A few patterns of intricate linkup movement, especially emanating via central midfield, were on show too.
Yet many negative, sloppy and Championship-like parts to LCFC remained evident. First of all, the Foxes' regularly Sunday League-level passing. Aside from the excellent Harry Winks on the night and Facundo Buonanotte's constantly positive forward-thinking, a lot of King Power stars panicked in possession which caused unnecessary problems for them, along with teammates.
Even some of the more typically reliable performers gave up the ball without challenge or made ill-advised backwards passes. And I'm not even talking about Wout Faes' circus-like, ridiculous header towards Mads Hermansen that gave Chris Wood a brace.
Possession is nine-tenths of the footballing law
Possession must be kept like is a lifeline - which it literally is for the east Midlanders this campaign! The Leicester footballers should, effectively, think of the ball as a limb or something they never wish to relinquish - maybe their mobile phones!?
When they are in control, directness and value from attacks is required if we are going to stand any chance of survival in 2024/25. There are times when simple or increasingly speculative passes go amiss. James Justin seemed uncomfortable on occasion on the left as well.
City defenders and midfielders also have to be focused at all times. A lack of concentration becomes pervasive on Filbert Way at times. Even though Jamie Vardy warned against it prior to kick-off, LCFC seemingly allowed the fixture's significance to affect them.