Leicester City fell to a 3-1 defeat to East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest at the King Power Stadium on Friday evening.
Forest took an early lead after Facundo Buonanotte and James Justin made individual mistakes, allowing Ryan Yates a shot at goal from just outside the box. However, Leicester bounced back strongly, with Jamie Vardy poking home a wonderfully constructed move. The teams went into halftime 1-1 with a big second half ahead.
Former Fox Chris Wood gave Forest the lead minutes into the second half due to another individual mistake. Thirteen minutes later, Wood had Nottingham’s third and his second after capitalising on yet another individual error. It was a shambolic second half by Leicester, and Forest will have bragging rights in the East Midlands with a deserved away victory.
Leicester City almost always conceded early goals
Leicester have made it a bad habit to start games slowly. They almost always concede first and early in the game. This puts unnecessary pressure on the Foxes to bounce back, and while the players show some more urgency, they can’t always wait to fall behind before fully waking up.
The Foxes have conceded first in seven of the nine Premier League games this season. In those seven games, all the goals have come before halftime, with five coming before the 20th minute and eight coming within the half-hour mark. Leicester have also faced 167 shots this season, aggregating an expected goals (xG) of 18.3–both metrics are the highest in the league.
Steve Cooper must soon find solutions for the team’s defensive problems. There seems to be a problem with the team’s mentality and discipline while defending. Fans have called for James Justin to be dropped, but realistically, who else can play the inverted fullback role on the left? Victor Kristiansen and Luke Thomas are attacking fullbacks and will struggle with their defensive duties. While Cooper may want a new left back in the January window, Leicester’s financial troubles will likely not allow it.
Leicester will face Ipswich Town in their next league fixture, and a loss would be disastrous for their hopes of survival.
