Leicester City 1 QPR 2: An off day or a bigger chink in the Leicester armour?
Three league losses in a row? There's no sugarcoating that fact for Enzo Maresca and Leicester City.
Queens Park Rangers came with a plan and somewhat comfortably took the win at the King Power, on a day where the hosts wished the first half rainbow had a pot of gold and some injury-reversing fortune thrown in at the end of it.
Against Middlesbrough we only had our poor shooting boots to blame. It was a similar story against Leeds, until the team lost their cool having not put the home side to bed. But this time against QPR? Is it a similar story or a warning sign to be more concerned?
We definitely didn't deserve to win. This was a sluggish, off performance, but the most worrying part is that it’s hard to pinpoint why.
Despite dominating much of the ball, we didn’t do enough to test Asmir Begovic in goal. It doesn't matter that Mads Hermansen’s first real task was picking the ball out of the net. QPR scored a goal we have conceded too often. A fast move after James Justin was outmuscled saw Lyndon Dykes surging forward, dragging both centre backs over to that wing and the Leicester defence left scrambling.
Ilias Chair was entirely unmarked to just tap in. With the strange atmosphere at home games and increasing nerves for some fans, it's not ideal to give up such an easy goal to go 1-0 down and galvanise an already loud away end.
QPR had two chances on goal and scored twice. The first was criminal, for more than one reason, but we've conceded that type of goal before and it’s tough to watch back. There were too many players just not quite at the races this time and the away team outplayed us.
Despite Ben Nelson’s first goal, putting away the rebound that Begovic had saved from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's free kick, we didn't threaten enough. A second goal felt like it would have been a miracle. Even Nelson didn't have time to relish his big moment in a bid to salvage something. There were some boos at the end but mostly nervous checks of final scores and groans that everybody around us picked up points.
It's the business end of the Championship and in somewhat agonising Leicester City fashion, we seem to be opting for doing it the hard way.
Depth, injuries and selection issues
You could suggest that we didn't have ideal preparation for this encounter, after Tuesday night's South Coast excursion went to extra time, but Enzo Maresca compensated for the minutes some played midweek by resting the majority of those players and restoring the usual suspects who should have been raring to go. Quite why they weren't or didn't look on top form is a mystery.
The big positional question marks? Despite Conor Coady’s excellent display at Bournemouth, Nelson was the sensible choice if you're looking at fresh legs.
Patson Daka was given the nod up front despite Kelechi Iheanacho's brilliant input from the substitute bench on Tuesday. The Nigerian didn't even make the bench, something that won't be reflected on kindly given our shooting issues again.
Before the FA Cup game midweek, we only had Wilfred Ndidi’s return to worry about. We exit this weekend without Ricardo for the next month and face a similar absence for Dennis Praet, injured after just fourteen minutes. Never a rest day in the Seagrave physio room.
Losing Ricardo was already a huge blow, Championship cheat code as he is, but this untimely knock for Praet is another example of why so many Foxes fans are on the fence about the Belgian. It’s hugely unfortunate when he had finally started to impose himself on the starting eleven again.
It all feels a little limited right now. Another year of our January transfer activity, this time the lack of it, coming to roost. When the time came to substitute Yunus Akgun (himself a substitute), it was Tom Cannon who seemed to be trying to fill the gap behind the striker. If there is a clear plan B for when we're chasing a game, it doesn't feel cohesive or convincing. Which begs the question of whether we have the depth and options in the right places?
Where our changes didn't provide enough change or impact, QPR's second half switch of taking off the rather lightweight Dykes to bring on Sinclair Armstrong (a strong name for him to carry into a post-retirement wrestling career) was instantly rewarded.
Armstrong scored a second for Rangers having been on the pitch one minute. Our set piece frailties reared their head again with nobody closing the ball down. It’s not solely down to the absent Jannik Vestergaard, but he has been so dominant in the air this season that it's hard not to feel he would have cut the cross out before it got to Armstrong.
Final third failures
At what point does it go beyond being a broken record? It wasn't just the chances not taken this week, though. We simply did not create enough good chances. Quite frankly, we could have been there another ninety minutes and struggled to bag another goal.
Whereas in previous fixtures it's been our finishing that let us down, against QPR we just lacked inspiration and effective balls into the box. Spare a thought for the three strikers we deployed throughout who had to come deep or were left wandering around ball watching while those around them failed to supply them.
How many times did we get it to Abdul Fatawu on the wing for it to come to nothing? The sheer number of touches near the final third versus the big chances created is scandalous. If you need a singular reason for the loss, look no further. Not enough players executing moves and no real creative outlets on the bench.
Simply though, we suffered too many players having off days in a single instance. It's easier to list those who didn't suffer this issue than those who did. We can excuse Hermansen who had nothing to do outside of picking the ball from his net twice. Wout Faes was generally solid, too. But few others escape criticism today. Big players that we have previously relied on, Dewsbury-Hall, Mavididi and Justin were badly off the pace.
The Justin versus Callum Doyle debate is a tough one. Justin is arguably the better defender at left back, able to cope with quick players and the one-on-one battles, but Doyle has far the better first touch and is a stronger attack-minded passer. With Chris Willock’s pace, you understand why Justin started but Doyle’s ability to get a pinpoint pass into the forward players was a big miss.
The moral elephants on the pitch
The one real surprise of the afternoon was Choudhury donning the captain’s armband. Though he’s already taken that role a couple of times this season, giving the armband to a player who appeared in court on his (second) drink driving charge just two days before was bold at best.
Clearly, Maresca and the club are happy with his behaviour and attitude on-field and in training, but it feels misjudged to have not only played him but offered him the ‘reward’ of the armband after the details of his sentence emerged.
Leadership isn't an easy quality to come by. You only need look at how the Foxes have fared after losing Kasper Schmeichel last season to see how difficult it is to find genuine leaders, but there is a bad taste to this decision and it doesn't look great.
The club may have dealt with the Choudhury arrest internally when it happened in January but when there were other candidates on the pitch capable of being captain for a game or two, it feels a bit of a kicker.
Would this be a theme if we had won? For me, yes. But losing highlights it more. Choudhury was exemplary on the pitch at Bournemouth midweek but simply playing versus being given the extra responsibility of leading a team is different.
It was an odd game when you look at the first QPR goalscorer too. Ilias Chair was given a one year jail sentence in Antwerp last week but was still able to play and score here. The justice system will deal with when and whether he should be serving that sentence, but it raises the question of whether his club should be so happy for him to play knowing he's been found guilty.
Football has a morality issue across the board. Simply put, if the average Joe in the stands had been found guilty of either Choudhury or Chair’s offence, they'd likely lose their job. The balance of ‘but they're good at football so…’ feels dicey.
There's no rest for the wicked (maybe harsh) though and little time for Enzo to reflect on this one. It's straight back into action, an away trip to Sunderland on Tuesday. The gap to the chasing pack, led by Ipswich again, is somewhat lessened now.
We need a reaction and a repeat of the more composed resilience from the Bournemouth game to quiet the ever-more-pressing doubts. We need a statement game from this Leicester City team.
