Foxes left to rue another point-less away game

Few teams go from Premier League winners one season to putting themselves into the mix for relegation the next. Unfortunately with a 2-1 loss away to Watford, that’s what Leicester City are doing right now. Another fruitless away trip leaves the Foxes two points off the bottom three, but the scoreline wasn’t the most concerning thing.

Results are the focus for any football team, but the performances accompanying the results are just as important for Claudio Ranieri’s side. Another sub-par performance was summed up in the opening minute when Watford took the lead after capitalising on some terrible defending and great intensity on the home side’s part. Foxes fans hoping for a comeback after a woeful display against West Brom, were left to watch the same issues play out once more. Watford closed down every ball, defended as a unit and were never truly threatened enough by us.

While there was good news in seeing Danny Drinkwater in the starting line-up, after a rib injury that kept him out of the England squad, Ranieri was forced to make one change at the stadium before kick-off. Despite travelling with the squad, Islam Slimani was ruled out of the game with a slight groin strain. He’s likely to be needed for our midweek Champions League game so it’s probably precautionary, but you couldn’t help but feel that his height and physical presence would have been beneficial to today’s game. Especially with Marc Albrighton back on the wing, sure to put balls into the box.

It was a poor start from Ranieri’s men. Too many times this season our defence, the same back-line who were so solid last season, have looked unfamiliar with one another. The only change is Ron-Robert Zieler starting in place of the recovering Kasper Schmeichel. Zieler can’t be blamed for today’s performance, though early heated looking conversations between he and Wes Morgan suggest that there’s still room for improvement with the trust there. We’ve seen communication issues defensively all season though, and while Schmeichel may be the better organiser of the two goalkeepers, today’s number one was hardly given a chance with either of Watford’s goals. He deserves credit for limiting that number to two, making a particularly good stop in the second half.

Slow and sluggish starts and first halves have been all too frequent for the Foxes this season. We began to play more like ourselves when it was already at 2-0, giving ourselves an uphill struggle to get something from the game, despite it only being a quarter into the match. A door was opened when Jamie Vardy was fouled inside the box and Riyad Mahrez coolly dispatched the penalty kick. It restored hope, and we were able to build on that, creating more chances but ultimately not threatening the home side, who defended well. Our own defensive frailties continued to be a concern.

Mahrez was again involved in most of the good things Leicester did today, his free-kick that almost found Morgan’s head, arguably our best chance of the first half. Vardy looked like a man with restored confidence after his exploits for England midweek, but once again we failed to really create opportunities for him. When he was able to join in, he took himself out of the penalty area, meaning when the resulting crosses came in, he wasn’t there to be on the end of them. For the crosses we put in today, we could really have used Slimani, or somebody like Ulloa, to try and get their head onto the end of them.

Losing is part and parcel of being a football fan. It’s not something new to Leicester fans either, but where frustration stems from is in the way the game is lost. It’s the same problems; defensive leaks, a lack of talking, not enough chances created and not enough players looking up to it at the same time. Ok, so today’s result also leaves us just a few points off 9th position, so it’s a tight bottom half of the table and too early to go into panic mode, but we certainly need to see improvements, and sooner rather than later.

If anybody was still in doubt, today made it absolutely clear that we need to have another option or two at the back and a true partner for Drinkwater. We appear to have a distinct lack of options in both areas and while Ranieri did enforce changes in the second half, they weren’t effective enough. Jeff Schlupp probably had the biggest impact, though questions remain about his future with the club, West Brom said to be reviving their interest in him for January. We also threw Ahmed Musa and Demarai Gray at them, but from a losing position, with few serious chances on goal, it wasn’t going to be Leicester’s day.

In a familiar pattern, Leicester now turn their attention to the Champions League on Tuesday night, off the back of a, simply not good enough, performance. Only a point is required against Club Brugge to secure qualification into the knockout stages, but a reaction is expected, a show to make up for the weekend. Ranieri remains confident in his group of players, but like it or not, we have a tough run into Christmas and, along with numerous other teams, a potential relegation scrap that we could do without.

A win would mean the final group game, away to Porto and probably the toughest of the lot, wouldn’t matter and could hopefully just be enjoyed. We need focus firmly back on the Premier League during this tough period and before we lose the likes of Mahrez and Slimani to international duty in the New Year. January signings are required, but it still feels like there’s room to try a new formation, to take some risks and to get back to the team who fight hard for one another and overcome the doubters.