Out Foxed In London Mess

by Jamie Nicholls

It was an evening to forget in East London as West Ham overpowered the Foxes in a 4-1 demolition job and a record-breaking performance by Michail Antonio.  

Leicester were quite simply subpar, even with eleven men, as the team struggled to create chances against a West Ham team who looked poor defensively against Newcastle United last week. Ayoze Perez, with the first red card of the season, can have no complaints about his actions, and his reckless moment of madness left the team in a situation they definitely didn’t want to be in prior to kick off.  In his pre-match interview Rodgers stated that his Leicester team were a “physical team” who are “here to compete with the big teams”, however we didn’t see any of this based on Monday night’s performance. It was a performance Leicester will have to brush off and put behind them as they head into an easier fixture away at Norwich next Saturday.

I give my player ratings as Leicester need to lick their wounds from last night’s second-rate performance as West Ham make it three straight wins against Leicester and Antonio continues his incredible form against Leicester with another two goals.

Kasper Schmeichel- 6/10

Wasn’t really at fault for any of the four goals, made a good save to deny a powerful Antonio header and another good save to deny Antonio from range. It was a good reaction save but was a nice height for Kasper overall. Decent ball distribution but at the end of the day, he conceded four goals.

Ricardo Pereira- 5/10

Had a very good chance to make it 1-1 within the first half after being slipped through on goal by Ayoze Perez before his sending off. Despite his good movement off the ball, he was poor defensively today and he was at fault for the fourth goal and let Antonio beat him to the ball far too easily, despite the quality of the goal. Also got a booking for an unnecessary, late foul. Overall, hard to give him any higher or lower than a five.

Caglar Soyuncu- 4/10

Antonio proved too much of a handful today for both Soyuncu and Amartey. In the first half, he completed a lot of passes, but they weren’t progressive enough. Despite making a good challenge to cut out Jarrod Bowen, he was a massive liability in that Leicester back line. Despite the quality of Antonio’s goal to make it 3-1, Soyuncu was far too tight to his man and was spun far too easily. An awful pass back for the goal to make it 2-1 makes it hard for me to give Soyuncu any higher than a 3 tonight.

Daniel Amartey- 4/10

Like Soyuncu, it was a night to forget for Daniel Amartey who left his man, Pablo Fornals, for the opening goal which the Spaniard swept past Schmeichel. Again, it was far too easy for Antonio’s 4^th goal with poor defending by both Amartey and Pereira. Fofana is looking a big miss for Leicester, especially with new boy Jannik Vestergaard out aswell.

Luke Thomas- 5/10

Whilst Luke was not directly at fault for any of the goals, he, alike many others put in a disappointing performance tonight. He struggled to handle the aggressive and direct nature of Coufal and Bowen, he and Barnes together struggled to deal with the overlaps and he allowed far too much time for crosses to be into the box on more than one occasion. I think he was lucky that the crosses weren’t met by Antonio or it could have been a cricket score.

Youri Tielemans- 6/10

Provided Leicester with defensive cover for the majority of the game but struggled to handle the intensity of the West Ham midfield tonight. Gave the foxes the hope they needed to try and salvage something from the game with a scrappy finish past Fabianski, however he didn’t provide enough intensity and drive for the foxes and his passing was uncharacteristically erratic. Despite the goal, it was a pretty underwhelming performance.

Wilfred Ndidi- 6.5/10

Wilfred was a standout performer tonight in a very disappointing team performance. He provided the backline with a lot of solid defensive cover as usual and made a lot of key interceptions throughout the game. Without his ball winning ability in that midfield tonight I think the score may have been a lot worse than it was. As well as playing well defensively, he was a driving force in a team who, for the majority of the game, looked uninterested.

James Maddison- 5/10

Actively tried to make things happen within the first half at 0-0 but after the goal, looked uninterested and lethargic. Didn’t really offer much and gave away possession cheaply, despite his energetic start. Other than providing the cross for the eventual goal, he didn’t influence play and was a reason Leicester were so poor in creating anything tonight.

Harvey Barnes- 5/10

A night to forget for Barnes after extending his contract this week. He was careless in possession when he did get forward, but really struggled to get into the game and looked uninterested for the majority of the game. Really had no influence on the game.

Jamie Vardy- 5/10

Was a passenger for the majority of the game and spent the entirety of the game feeding off scraps. However his pressing intensity, along with the other forward players was way below what we usually see of Rodgers’ men and as previously stated, the players looked uninterested and lethargic tonight. Overall really disappointing by Vardy who, like Barnes and Maddison, had no influence on the game.

Ayoze Perez- 1/10

Nothing to say really. Ayoze had no influence on the game other than feeding a chance into Ricardo which, in fairness, he should have done better with. With a horrible and unnecessary challenge on Fornals that got him sent off, Perez put his team in an awful position and the scoreline probably wouldn’t have been anything similar. A moment of madness.

Patson Daka, Boubakary Soumare and Kelechi Iheanacho- N/A

An awkward time for Daka to make his debut, but all three were passengers in a Leicester side who had no intensity in their build up or pressing. The three didn’t do enough or were on the pitch long enough to warrant a rating.

Here are the thoughts of Leicester fan George- @lcfcgeorgee on Twitter:

“Overall a spineless performance full of mistakes from start to finish, we dominate the ball and go 1-0 down, what’s new? The worst thing is I don’t think any Leicester fan will be surprised about that result, performances like that have happened too often. Having your best 2 CB’s out injured doesn’t help, but Soyuncu and Amartey looked panicked at the back, misplaced passes all night and were at fault for half of the goals. Right winger needed ASAP!”

Final thoughts

Leicester fans will be expecting a lot more of their team heading into the game against Norwich next weekend who face Bournemouth in their first Carabao Cup outing this Tuesday. It was a lethargic, spineless and underwhelming performance against West Ham with the blues failing to create many chances. This was a common feature within the last game against Wolves and the team were fortunate to come away with 3 points last week. West Ham were ruthless, something we expect from our own team but two underwhelming performances in a row from Rodgers’ men despite victory against Wolves mean there are lots of talking points for YOU fans!

What do you think we need to improve?  Do you want to see any new faces within the next week? If so, who?

You can let us know by commenting under the post or tagging us on Twitter at @LeicesterFanTV. We want to hear YOUR thoughts!

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