Relegation looms

Relegation looms By Tom Shapland

Leicester City travelled to Craven Cottage on the 35^th Matchday of the Premier League season. The Foxes went into the game on the back of two draws against relegation rivals Leeds and Everton. With all still to play for, Dean Smith’s men needed a big result against a high and flying Fulham. However, in an 8-goal thriller, Fulham managed to complete their first Premier League double over Leicester since 2003-04 and handed Leicester their 21^st loss of the League season. The last time Leicester lost more in a league campaign was 1994-95 (25), which coincidently was a season they were relegated from England’s top division.

The games action erupted in the 10^th minute when a freekick for Fulham was whipped in by Willian, with Iversen misjudging the bounce and the ball landing right past him into the back of the net. 1-0 and a horror start for Leicester once again.

Shortly after, the hosts doubled their lead. In the 18^th minute, Soumare was caught on the ball and Fulham broke on the counter. Leicester’s defence crumbled and Wilson slotted in Vinicius who put it into the bottom right corner, 2-0 Fulham and Leicester had work to do.

Leicester saw themselves have a few more chances after going 2-0 down, unsurprisingly the players are still yet to learn you can try and score before conceding. A couple of chances from Vardy went astray, as he was gifted 2 opportunities from Robinson. Just as half time was approaching, the Foxes decided to make their second half just a little bit harder. An atrocious attempt of a clearance from Faes was won back by Palhinha who played in Vinicius. The former Spurs striker held off Soyuncu with unimaginable ease before picking out Cairney, who of course, drilled it in to make it 3-0 Fulham going into half-time.

A half time change of Tete on for Praet is hardly inspiring, but it was what Dean Smith thought the game needed, and in the 51^st minute, shock horror, he was wrong. A surge down the right from Kenny Tete saw him sear past Soumare before whipping it in to Cairney, who grabbed his second goal of the game, 4-0 Fulham. Maybe Smith thought he was subbing on Fulham’s Tete.

A GOAL FOR LEICESTER AT LAST. In the 59^th minute of the game Barnes pulled one back. A cross from Castagne into Maddison, who unselfishly played in Barnes. The winger went for power as he smashed it in off the underside of the bar. 4-1, game on…

Things got interesting as Leicester won a penalty 7 minutes after their goal, it couldn’t be, could it? Well, the answer was no as Jamie Vardy couldn’t find the back of the net, a crucial blow.

Willian scores again… Reed switched play to Willian who cut inside to find more space than he could ever imagine, whipping it from range and beating Iversen, 5-1 Fulham. Another, crucial blow.

As all hope had seemingly gone, Leicester won another penalty. Maddison stepped up this time, hoping to put his streak right after missing against Everton. He made no error this time as he smashed it down the right. 5-2, but surely only consolation now.

Just before this nightmare of a game was about to end for Leicester, they scored again. It was once again, Harvey Barnes who netted for the Foxes. A ball over the top from Soyuncu caused Fulham problems, and a sharp Daka reacted quicky to tee up Barnes who drilled it into the net. Full-time, 5-3.

MY THOUGHTS

“I think when you look at the situation Leicester now find themselves in, it’s easy to assign blame. Some fans are criticising the players and that’s completely understandable, but if you rewind to the

start of the season, no goalkeeper was signed to replace Schmeichel, there was no contingency plan for Fofana leaving either. If you look at it objectively, Soyuncu was going into the last year of his contract, Evans a year older and still having injury problems, Leicester should have been signing centre backs even if Fofana stayed.

Now they find themselves in a position where they’ve rushed signings and have no Premier League quality centre backs. There’s also a glaring issue at the club that’s been there for years now, the medical team. The amount of injuries Leicester go through a season is ridiculous, if you look at players like Pereira, Justin, Ndidi, Vestergaard, Evans, Vardy and even Maddison this season, it’s a joke.

There’s obviously room for criticism of the performance on the pitch, but for that to improve, the infrastructure of the club needs to be stable. There’s no clear plan at the club for the profile of players they want to sign, there’s no consistency in the fitness of the players that are there, no planning for contracts or replacements, so now players are leaving on frees, and worst of all, there was clearly no planning on how to replace Rodgers, which surely, given how long he had to sort it, that HAS to be something discussed and planned by the board?”

Leicester now has 3 massive games before the end of the season, with Liverpool up next. A difficult game against last year’s Champions League finalists.  With little hope left for the Foxes this season after a mauling by Fulham, it looks like a difficult road ahead. However, there’s still a chance for them to turn this around, but it needs to happen now if they want to keep their place in England’s top division. Leicester V Liverpool, Monday 15^th May, 8PM.