Leicester City Fan View: Poor tactics and first-half displays keep costing Foxes

Losing 3-2 to a full-strength Liverpool side isn’t a bad result on paper. Had you only watched Leicester City in the second half, you may have thought we were just unlucky. That half doesn’t tell the whole story though. It was yet another lifeless, uninspiring first half from Craig Shakespeare’s side and we paid the price, 2-0 down after twenty-five minutes.

Another hapless first half from the Foxes

If we were judging the season so far on first halves, it would be a miserable one for Leicester City. We played quite well against Arsenal on the opening night, but virtually every other first half has been poor. We’ve ridden our luck, looked lifeless and generally been second best. We may have got away with it against a team like Huddersfield, who failed to take their chances, but Liverpool always looked likely to capitalise.

The inevitable meltdown from some Leicester fans began before the game with Marc Albrighton and Andy King both in the starting eleven. I had also hoped to see Vicente Iborra start, our side crying out for some inspiration in midfield, but for reasons only Shakespeare knows, it wasn’t to be. To pin the blame for yesterday solely on King or Albrighton would be outrageous. The team as a whole share their blame, even the usually dependable Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel don’t escape it.

READ MORE: Coutinho helps halt Reds’ slump as Vardy misses spot kick

I’m not sure we were expecting to beat Liverpool, they are still one of the top sides, but we didn’t make it easy for ourselves. Going two-nil down so early on makes it incredibly hard to get back into the game. It’s something we’re yet to address and was all too common of a problem under Claudio Ranieri last season too. With the players we have and the investment made in the summer, it’s not good enough and you can understand why there’s frustration.

Questionable tactics not helping Leicester

I’ve been concerned already this season about or lack of a Plan B. Virtually every team knows how to stop our Plan A, 4-4-2 counter-attack, and we look clueless of how else to set ourselves up. Shakespeare is still new to the managerial game so we can’t expect him to get it right 100% of the time, but it is a worry. Against Liverpool, the utter lack of movement kept hurting us and was painful to watch.

READ MORE: Leicester are in need of Plan B and some fresh tactics

Our midfield has been the focal point of many of our poor displays this season. Between injury and the Adrien Silva transfer saga, we definitely haven’t seen Shakespeare’s ideal duo, or trio, yet. Once again we looked incredibly vulnerable in the middle. Far too often our defenders found themselves in possession and with absolutely nobody to pass too. Their colleagues were statuesque, leaving them with no option but to charge forwards themselves, not a problem for Harry Maguire, or hoof it up the pitch. Both left us exposed and Liverpool usually regained possession and hurt us on the attack.

We managed a second half improvement again. Which only served to frustrate more because, had we played anything like that in the first half, who knows. Liverpool certainly didn’t enjoy it when we did press them more. It was still a case of brawn over brains though. We have incredibly hard working players and this is where we found more joy, rather than shifting tactics to suit the game and the players. In classic football manager style, chasing a point, we threw on two strikers and went full attack. One of those being Islam Slimani. Though whereas we kept pumping crosses in during the first half, we put less in with him on which again seems bizarre.

The Premier League table makes for poor viewing

How far are the Foxes behind where we expected? Perhaps only two points less than we’d hoped for. I had hoped we’d bury our away demons and get a win at Huddersfield, but otherwise, we’re where I anticipated at this stage. It hasn’t been an ideal start with the fixtures we’ve had. Yes, you can argue teams around and below us have fared better against the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool, but it’s not guaranteed. The one thing it does mean is that the next two, against Bournemouth and West Brom, look more important than games usually are at this point in the season.

Craig Shakespeare may have temporarily lifted pressure in midweek, but after another Premier loss, it’s well and truly piling back on. There’s a lot of discontent from Foxes fans. It makes next Saturday’s away trip to Bournemouth seem even more important. The table has made better viewing so three points would certainly be welcome heading into the international break.