The Fosse Way

Ask Leicester City fans if a particular date for terrible results stands out, and Boxing Day will be a popular answer. But mid-January hasn’t been very kind to us either. Regardless of our FA Cup 3rd round exploits, the following league match or two has given us some pretty horrific games of football:

19th Jan 2025: Fulham 2 Leicester City 0 (abysmal showing, zero hope)
13th Jan 2024: Coventry City 3 Leicester City 1 (we’d led until the 78th minute / Fatawu’s red card)
14th Jan 2023: Nottingham Forest 2 Leicester City 0 (pre-match we were level on points)
19th Jan 2022: Leicester City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3 (we were leading until the 90th minute)

Lining up to face the team at the top of the table who have had some frustrating results themselves lately had the potential to add another result to this list. Add in the extra pressure of the M69 derby which continues to get more feisty as we meet more often, and this would need a strong showing from a Leicester team who haven’t exactly been trustworthy.

Tensions between the fans started earlier than the midday kick-off, some skirmishes in the streets outside the stadium had the police scrambling to form a line. Then later running through a retail shopping park to try and break up some fights between some men, who are old enough to know better, and some kids who seemed more interested in this than the football at hand.

On the pitch, Leicester came out with some fight too. The starting lineup was more akin to the pretty fortunate win over West Brom than the side who did a professional job at Cheltenham, a lot of the academy kids back on the bench to make way for some (hopefully) rested first team players.

From the side that overcame the Baggies, Hamza Choudhury made way for Luke Thomas and Jeremy Monga was back on the bench, Stephy Mavididi started following a good showing at Cheltenham. Jannik Vestergaard was on the bench, having gone off injured in the FA Cup tie. There was also a return to the squad for Boubakary Soumare, seemingly not as close to an exit as you’d hope.

The Foxes made a bright start. It’s tough to say whether Coventry set up wrong, were sluggish but was within minutes, there was something for the away end to celebrate wildly, Jordan James got yet another with just ten minutes on the clock. If you’re thinking you’ve heard the start of a game like this before, you’d be sadly correct about where it was headed.

The usual suspects

Leicester had come out the blocks looking the more likely to score. The way Cifuentes had set up the team seemed to be carving open the Coventry lines and they were struggling to contain us in the early phases. With Abdul Fatawu able to find space down his flank, he got away from his marker and cut the ball back to Bobby De Cordova-Reid who found James.

The Welsh midfielder is no stranger to scoring this season, this wasn’t a screamer but it was a well worked move and a nice finish. He seemed to enjoy the celebrations and took up the much missed Jamie Vardy baiting the home fan role.

This was another excellent performance from James, easily the Foxes’ man of the match. He had the better of Matt Grimes when the two went head to head, and dancing between being just onside, he made some excellent runs into the box and to help look to set up his team mates.

It’s not a surprise that three of the main contributors for our goals combined again for the Leicester goal. Take James (9) and De Cordova-Reid (6) out of the equation and 14 of Leicester’s 38 goals are gone instantly. Take Fatawu (5) and then Ayew’s (5) contributions out and we’re down to 14 goals scored between essentially the rest of the squad.

Two more coming from a loanee who’s injured again and one of those from a player we just loaned out to Monaco. It’s excellent that we’ve got a couple of players in rich form but it’s a worrying picture if even one of those is having an off day, or doesn’t play. Injury to any of them would be incredibly concerning. As would losing Fatawu if the club are tempted to cash in this transfer window.

Perhaps it was fitting that we had two big chances to have cemented a lead and really make life difficult for the home side, both chances falling to De Cordova-Reid who couldn’t finish either of them. One was not ideally placed, the other forced an excellent save that would have added another assist to James’ tally.

Our attacking threat diminished in the second half as we found ourselves up against a rejuvenated Coventry side, one team talk clearly more inspiring than the other. Just two shots on target in the second half, neither hugely unsettling Carl Rushworth.

A goal at Cheltenham appeared to do little to change Daka’s style after he came on. When a favourable ball found itself at his feet, the resulting shot was wayward and didn’t even register on target. Where he’d previously made a case for starting over Ayew, it seems to have reversed again. Ayew had the better of the Coventry defenders and ignoring the moment he did show tricks only to run it out of play (Ahmed Musa, have you returned?), looked up for the derby.

But Leicester, setting a delightful new record of 21 consecutive league games now without a clean sheet, paid for this lack of clinical finishing from the first half. Our second half capitulation cemented this as our worst defensive run since 1949.

Consistently inconsistent

At half time, 1-0 up and having played fairly well, most fans would be optimistic. You hope the team will build on that and come out and carry it on. But hope is an emotion that has forsaken some Leicester fans. Pragmatism has replaced it. And that pragmatic voice says that Leicester haven’t put in many complete, ninety minute performances. Or kept clean sheets.

Safe to say only the truly optimistic would have been surprised when we conceded mere seconds into the second half and as we’ve seen already this season, that momentum shift was only gong to end in one outcome.

Without hope, or a fraction of belief, there’s not much else left. There were a few disgruntled murmurings in the away end at both goals, be it the painstaking trickling in for the Ellis Simms goal, or the way we all knew exactly what was coming when Haji Wright got the ball to score the winner. But there was mostly a frustrated silence. Nothing about it was a surprise.

The second goal had been coming for a while. That it took until the 86th minute is more a case of luck as opposed to resolute, convincing defending. There wasn’t a lack of effort, just the same frailties we’ve grown used to. But it was nothing our rivals didn’t deserve. Stolarczyk had had to scramble for a few shots at 1-1 and Esse saw a shot ricochet off the post. Lampard had picked his side and set them up well.

Wright’s goal wasn’t a shining moment for Luke Thomas. Sakamoto and he are fairly matched in height and weight and the winger barely had to body check our left back for him to go down, leaving the Coventry winger to feed the ball in providing a simple finish for his fellow substitute, Wright. It was all too easy.

We’ve referenced that a lot of the points we have gained have relied on individual moments of brilliance. A lot of the goals we’ve given up have been a collection of individual moments of stupidity carried out in a chain reaction.

When we have looked okay in a first half this season, or gone ahead, it’s been a nervous second half and finish for the most part but mostly it’s just been downhill from half time. The only thing we’re consistent in is being wholly inconsistent across a 90 minute game. Where we seen to set up properly and do all the right things for a while, we seem to either forget it all or fail to change an approach when our opposition switch up theirs.

We’re so competent in the role of masters of our own demise. Switching off in key moments, not taking chances, an inability to keep a clean sheet and a lack of options to change problem areas. Players who despite their impact cannot play 90 minutes, or need to be measured with a Tuesday night game in mind. It’s a series of small problems, daft decisions and constraints. But it’s all so familiar, a trap we just keep falling into.

A tale of two benches and squads

If good managers know how to change the game with the timing and the personnel of substitutions, then having a strong bench is key. At home games this side, we’ve made a mini game of comparing the Leicester bench to our opponents and deciding which wins. Safe to say the Leicester bench hasn’t prevailed often.

Coventry’s big differential was the ability to bring on players from the bench who can change the game and crucially, score goals. With Ellis Simms levelling the game early into the second half, the momentum shifted and as legs started to tire on both sides, the battle of the benches was effortlessly won by Frank Lampard.

At his disposal, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Haji Wright. Leicester’s answer? Swapping Ayew for Patson Daka and De Cordova-Reid for Louis Page. Page is incredibly promising but also still very young and isn’t going to come on and bag a hattrick.

One set of substitutes was met with encouraging fervour from fans, ours was met with the usual ‘if Daka scores, we’re on the pitch’ chants. It’s different levels. Coventry have been building this squad for a little while, as arguably have we, but they appear to have players who while not recognisable big names work hard and look to be united. We’ve been lacking in quality, goalscoring threat and the unity hasn’t always been quite so convincing.

The Championship season is gruelling. Even at this midpoint, there’s still 19 games to go. That’s a lot of football, all while waiting to understand our point deduction punishment, making a points tally hard to estimate for survival or the play offs (though mid table seems more likely).

Outside of the bench, the other weaknesses and limitations of the squad aren’t going to be fixed overnight. This was another game that highlighted the shortcomings of Luke Thomas, who struggled throughout. There aren’t obvious left back replacements available to Cifuentes while Kristiansen is recovering from a knee operation but a change is needed. Kristiansen didn’t cover himself in glory when drafted in to replace Thomas earlier this season either.

Ben Nelson, one of the highlights of the season so far, had a better first half and struggled a little with some of the aerial balls especially in the second half. But he wasn’t the only one who had a wobble or two in the second half. The pressure we were facing from the home side was persistent and building. Jakub Stolarczyk also showed his vulnerability again today. The goals may not have been horror stories but lack of communication or trust almost cost us a couple of times again.

Rumours of an incoming striker, Ibrahim Diabate from GAIS, might boost our goalscoring threat and signal the end of Daka’s time at the club. There are other changes to be considered if not made though, ones not likely to be fixed in this transfer window.

We travel to Wrexham on Tuesday night, who are ever looking to improve their squad and would relish the chance to beat Leicester. For the travelling fans, it’s another unknown. We’re perfectly playing the chaos vibes of the Championship.