Leicester City 0 Fulham 2: Sack the board and Isak hasn’t scored
After throwing away our first “winnable” home game of 2025, Leicester City had an immediate chance to change the narrative as Fulham came to the King Power.
Acknowledging that the Cottagers are a better side than Palace, some still hoped for a point or at least a performance to inspire belief again.
Did you guess the outcome? It was a meek surrendering on the pitch and growing, louder discontent in the stands.
No, we haven't just copy and pasted the Palace match report. But we could have.
For those of us who dragged ourselves to the King Power to watch an identical game just 72 hours after that 2-0 loss, it explains why fan patience had dried up by the twenty minute mark of this encounter.
If ever a game needed an early goal, it was this one. Jordan Ayew had a chance in the second minute after a corner but Bernd Leno was quick to react in the Fulham goal. The away side woke up shortly afterwards and it became a fairly one sided contest for large chunks afterwards before we whimpered to the 2-0 defeat.
Leicester City are back on a familiar knife edge. This defeat makes it seven back to back league losses. We haven't scored a league goal at home since December 8th against Brighton. We're in the relegation zone watching the gap growing to teams we once considered in the mix.
Crystal Palace are now 13 points clear of us, despite not looking good at all, and while the table makes grim reading for Tottenham and Manchester United fans, the odds are they’ll crawl out of this at some stage. Realistically, it’s just Everton and Wolves we’re eyeing up.
Our manager isn't acting like he's got a handle on things yet and some fans appear to have hit breaking point. There are 12 days left in the transfer window and while business may be happening behind the scenes, prospective players won't be jumping with joy to enter this chaotic club. Despite the cavernous gaps in the squad, our only signing so far is billed as being a backup.
Those hoping to see Woyo Coulibaly at least make the bench will be exasperated but not surprised to know that we didn't get him registered in time. Like Manchester City's new Uzbekistani signing, maybe Woyo will start to look like he's being held against his will.
If Wednesday night hadn’t induced him into what’s to come, more of the same on the pitch and even bigger calls for both Rudkin out and to sack the board dominated in The Kop this time.
But on the bright side, Alexander Isak failed to score as Newcastle crumbled to a Justin Kluivert led Bournemouth. Jamie Vardy’s consecutive scoring run remains safe for at least another couple of months. Pre-match that was one of the only positive things to be said.
Photo: David Bevan
Fans taking action: the foodbank and getting organised
It would be remiss to continue into the match report without acknowledging the one good thing that came from yesterday. Union FS’ annual food bank to collect for local charity, The Bridge.
Certainly from the table, and piles behind it, outside of SK1, they looked to have amassed a lot of donations in items and clothing, alongside £572 from everybody to support homelessness in the city.
A stark reminder that however frustrated we may all be, in comparison to what these donations will do for people in Leicester, it is just a game.
During the match and post-match saw action of another kind from fans. It may not be the whole stadium, but chants of ‘Sack the board’ would have been loud enough for those on the board over in the comfy seats to hear. Along with repeats of the same Rudkin chants, though one is more likely to garner respect than the other.
During the evening aftermath, a call for action was posted onto Foxes Talk and seemed to be gaining some traction before the thread was removed. It was calling for ‘Project Reset’, and something similar had popped up in 2023 too.
The themes aren’t particularly new, much like our current plight, but between that and another group calling for a digital display van, something is happening. This isn’t just because we lost to a team that are arguably better than us, though they didn’t really need to be on this occasion.
It’s the lack of communication, the same problems repeating on a loop and all playing out in a world where the cost to watch it keeps sky rocketing while the quality continues to plummet.
Whether or not any of this transpires to actual action ahead of the Arsenal game will come down to a few factors. It needs some strong leaders and voices to really unite fans in a way that we’ve not seen previously. Quite how it’s carried out will also be key to getting a wider majority onboard.
Given the Arsenal fixture is almost a month away, this could all fizzle out if nobody grabs hold of it or if we somehow pull off a win or two at Tottenham and/or Everton.
If those two games keep the status quo though, based on the chats happening on Raw Dykes and Aylestone Road yesterday and the frustrations spilling out online, it could really ramp up. Either way, this is the closest Foxes fans have got to demanding change in an organised fashion. Given our ongoing fall from grace, it’s been a long time coming.
Skipp the rest of the season
At the risk of being labelled dramatic, and another excuse for the media to call our fanbase entitled, trying to pinpoint where the next win is coming from is tough. Or rather, will we win again this season? Yesterday’s performance and the in-game decision making offer nothing to change that mindset.
Ever since The Fosse Way got going, you’ll have seen a lot of our writers and contributors mention that the game itself has gradually become just a piece of the day, no longer the main event. When the results continue to roll in as they are, and performances are so lifeless, it’s important to have other things to enjoy.
This week was a double bill for myself, a morning cinema trip to see A Complete Unknown and then a mini Fosse Way coffee meet ahead of the game before dropping off our donations. There wasn’t a lot of optimism for the result between us, but we all at least had made the day worthwhile and entered the King Power a little more relaxed.
I wish it wasn’t just a game, but it’s generally joyless in the stands right now. The manner in which we continue to gift goals, and the predictability of it all is draining. Drumming up enthusiasm to watch or attend the next games is tough.
And here we come to the Oliver Skipp of it all. It’s not his fault that somebody at the club decided paying a ridiculous transfer fee for him was a top priority of the summer, or that we were going to do this while admitting he was signed to pad the squad out, not to start. It’s also not his fault that he was one of the only options Ruud van Nistelrooy had yesterday, but it’s a good marker for where we are.
For what it’s worth, Skipp bore the brunt of the boos from the substitutions but it could so easily have been Bobby De Cordova-three-year-deal-Reid. It’s symptomatic of the decisions being made at every level.
Pre-match over coffee, a discussion played out over patience for van Nistelrooy and how much longer it would hold. Goodwill and optimism has started to evaporate over the course of these last two home games. Crowd frustration over the substitutes, the timing of them and persistent chanting from one section for Facundo Buonanotte to come on only to eventually get him, cue sarcastic cheers, and for him to effectively impact nothing given the scoreline.
RvN, a good manager or not, is in effect dealing with a problem that most managers couldn’t solve. How do you take a squad that simply isn’t good enough, has had their confidence erased and left to just shuffle around the same, limited deck of cards. For those who felt it was a vibes or profile appointment, he isn’t doing much to win hearts and minds so far.
The Buonanotte chants were both understandable and a damning show of where we’re at. He was left on the bench with Jordan Ayew preferred to try and support James Justin down the right flank, you’d conclude it didn’t really improve our defensive efforts but that’s another conversation.
He and Bilal El Khannouss are our reliance for some creativity. Both are incredibly young, one isn’t ours and the other is in his first Premier League season. With an inconsistent Stephy Mavididi and without Abdul Fatawu, it’s tough. Patson Daka’s introduction added some balance up top and an argument for starting him next to Jamie Vardy just for something different.
What is happening in our half-time team talks?
Being a 45 minute team has been an ongoing pain point of the season. In the early days, we only showed up and played in the second half, you could have a nice bet on us losing a game if we had a decent first half or somehow took the lead. The latest trend seems to be crumbling within minutes of the second half beginning.
Leicester fans knew the score as soon as we saw Adama Traore stepping onto the pitch at half-time. It took Crystal Palace six minutes to break the deadlock, but Fulham only needed three. Clearly the opposition manager is going to ask his team to step up and twist the screws on us, but what is van Nistelrooy saying to our players?
It casts doubt across his ability to manage at this level. Forgiveness can be granted for the situation he’s inherited, not having Ricardo and Fatawu available, but continually conceding so soon after the break is harder to overlook. Coupled with the manner we’re giving goals up, and the frequency.
van Nistelrooy has spoken of expecting the relegation race to run to the wire, which seems ambitious with the way we looked yesterday. We better hope it doesn’t come down to goal difference if we somehow drag it out that long.
Things boiled over more when van Nistelrooy tried to roll the dice. Taking off El Khannouss drew the most outrage. Kasey McAteer was bright on Wednesday so that part made sense, but at the expense of El Khannouss and not an Ayew was what caused the reaction. Offered the chance to explain his rationale post match, RvN opted not to. Communication, the lack of it, continues to rattle us all.
More worryingly than the subs and their timings, is the way the game concluded. Heads definitely dropped at the Fulham goals and the way we saw out the game was so meek and flat. We weren’t winning second balls and thank goodness for people like Wout Faes actually making tackles. Considering he’s a potential to leave too, maybe that sums it up.
When we’ve not been scoring prolifically this season, it adds to the uphill battle when we continue to concede such cheap goals. Fulham didn’t have to get out of second gear against this Leicester team, much like the Crystal Palace team three days before whose manager lambasted them for jogging around. As they beat us 2-0.
There’s less of a downed tool feel to this squad than the last relegation campaign, but there’s also less talent amongst them too and it looks like they’ve realised this. We’re back to expecting the transfer window to save us, to offer something new.
Maybe the players can benefit from the next two games, three if we count the FA Cup, being away from home. Less pressure from the stands. People like James Justin find themselves in a no-win situation, whether he passes backwards or forwards, it doesn’t seem to be the right scenario.
Fan patience has hit a season-low because we need something to happen, something has to change or you may as well put the red line next to us now.
