There comes a point in a season like this when each result and performance merges into one another. Was it Preston where we blew a lead at home and wasted a crucial chance to drag ourselves out of this mess? Or QPR?
Trick question, it was both. Though at least this time Leicester salvaged a point to limit the damage of another missed opportunity. A few weeks ago, the narrative from the club was that six of the last ten games at HQ represented the path to safety. Well, now it is three out of six and the Foxes are still in the relegation zone.
Gary Rowett has stabilised performances to some extent, but he has not been able to create any momentum at the King Power. Even when faced with a procession of opponents with little to play for, his team still experiences the same spells of lifeless drift that has afflicted Leicester for years, where a position of strength collapses into rubble in the space of a few minutes.
This was a poor quality encounter, where both teams were responsible for a messy game that was littered with mistakes from the start. An endless string of misplaced passes from white shirts. The midfielders in blue handing over possession in midfield with alarming regularity. There were lots of half chances, and very few clear-cut chances. Three of the four goals came via mistakes, while the fourth was a free header from a set piece.
The tone was set inside a minute, when Preston waltzed through the Leicester defence and contrived to fail to tap into an open goal at the back post. Then they gifted Patson Daka the opener with a spot of playing out from the back set to Benny Hill.
That should have been the game. At this stage of the season, teams with little to play for present some token defiance until they go behind, and then you can pencil in a 3-0 win. Preston are effectively safe and they didn’t show a huge amount of desire to do anything out of the ordinary.
When they had possession in their own half, it looked like a matter of time before they gifted Leicester another goal. Andrew Moran, the man responsible for the comedic opener, was caught in possession by Daka who then fell over instead of running clear on goal. The rest of the defence were equally shambolic. Daniel Iversen is so bad with the ball at his feet that Danny Ward used to be picked ahead of him, and he wasn’t even the worst culprit in the Preston back line.
On the Leicester side of the ledger, Daka himself looked transformed from the sorry figure who botched his lines against Watford. Sharing the same air as Lionel Messi was enough to turn Ahmed Musa into the most scintillating footballer of his generation for about half an hour, and it looks like its healing properties have only grown stronger with time.
The reality is that had anyone else put in as much effort or quality as Daka then Leicester would have won this game. His harrying caused a lot of the problems Preston suffered from at the back, his pace meant he was in position to capitalise on the two mistakes, and he could easily have ended up with a hat-trick.
He displayed one brilliant first touch to set up a chance from a Stephy Mavididi cross, which was saved, hit another shot on the spin that went narrowly over, and his industry out wide set up a good opportunity for Divine Mukasa, only for the loanee to scuff his shot at Iversen.
Later, Daka’s anticipation in nipping ahead of Jordan Storey should have produced either a red card for the defender or a goal for Oliver Skipp. The latter, unfortunately, reacted in sheer panic at finding himself in a 1v1 situation after the referee played advantage, pleading for someone to intervene before he eventually shot tamely at Iversen.
Rowett was about to take the Zambian off when he scored Leicester’s second, and Jordan Ayew’s brief appearance merely served to emphasise again how stuck every manager is with this strike force. Ayew ruined various attacks with heavy touches, spent 30 seconds over a corner when his team were desperately searching for a goal, and was then unceremoniously booted out of his number 9 role in favour of Jannik Vestergaard.
Indeed, the prospect of Vestergaard trotting on in added time, marching to the centre forward spot to widespread acclaim and shunting Ayew deeper to accommodate him, rather summed up the squad building issues that have brought us to this point.
The other issue that has brought us here, of course, is that the team is irredeemably soft, so that any position of strength can be turned into a weak one in the space of five minutes. So far we have glazed over the spell in the middle of this match, when suddenly Leicester went from winning to losing.
Such a turn of events is explicable, in the sense that they conceded the first goal because they kept giving it away in midfield and they conceded the second because they can’t defend set pieces. But it also defies explanation to some extent: it happened because it always happens, there is some crucial element of structure and organisation that is beyond this group of players.
Whichever combination is put on the pitch, the same thing happens. Whoever the manager is, the same thing happens. We have tried almost every conceivable mixture of goalkeeper, defenders, and midfielders, and it makes no difference whatsoever. Any time someone makes a mistake, it spells an existential threat. Even when we pick defensive midfielders, there’s never anyone covering for the full backs, or sweeping up when someone loses the ball further forward.
Even beyond that there is something more intangible missing, some combination of leadership and awareness that would mean the team collectively understood when to get through to half time and regroup. Or how to ease into a game, or how to chase one. Instead, we always give up chances early in each half, and we were treated to some bizarre antics in the dying stages, from Ayew taking forever over corners to Mavididi slowly trudging off when he was replaced.
Rowett has improved some of this. He has done a better job in a very difficult situation than Marti Cifuentes did; he seems to have more of a culture of accountability, he is more pragmatic, and he has improved the defending in a relative sense even if we still concede a lot of goals. But he is obviously hamstrung by the fact that he cannot force players to be sensible, or to keep their heads.
Having to replace an obviously hurt and physically shattered Daka, who was in Buenos Aires 48 hours earlier, and Ayew being the sole alternative option is one example of what he’s working with. Another is that having held Ben Nelson accountable for his mistakes against QPR, he’s forced to keep bringing him on after 70 minutes because Jamaal Lascelles isn’t fit enough. Nelson’s first act was to get caught in an absurd mix-up with Jakub Stolarczyk, and head a back pass onto his onrushing keeper’s knee. With his second touch he put a pass straight out for a throw.
Despite these issues, another positive to Rowett’s tenure is that he has balanced out some of the wilder swings in fortune from half to half. Leicester contriving to score a ludicrous own goal was Preston’s best chance of scoring after half time. The home team were pretty dominant after the break and ended up with 28 shots, the most since the opening day.
Many of those efforts came from outside the box but there has been an obvious improvement in activity in the final third since Rowett arrived. They just haven’t turned shots into goals and draws into wins often enough. A draw at this stage isn’t enough. You can’t keep standing on the shoreline when the tide is coming in.
So with six games left we find ourselves still stuck in the relegation zone. Doing enough to keep in touch with those around us, but not enough to pull away. From now on every game is a hugely pressurised situation – must beat Sheffield Wednesday then find at least a couple more wins, with playoff teams and relegation six pointers everywhere you look.
This team is better than it was but lacks the ruthlessness or the mental strength you need in these environments. We have an improved attack that struggles to score and an improved defence who still gives you a goal. We’ll soon find out if that’s enough to scramble through.
The Fosse Way 