Leicester City 3 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Date: Thursday 22nd April 2021 Live on BT SportBehind Closed Doors
Competition: Premier League
Leicester:
8.0
WBA:
2.6
Johnstone 6.1, Furlong 3.6, Bartley 3.6, O'Shea 3.7, Townsend 3.3, Yokuslu 3.6, Phillips 3.2, Maitland-Niles 2.7, Robinson 4.3 (Ajayi, 45 4.2), Pereira 3.0 (Grant, 73 2.6), Diagne 1.6 (Robson-Kanu, 61 4.1)
Unused subs: Button, Livermore, Diangana, Gallagher, Sawyers, Peltier
Manager: Sam Allardyce 3.5
Referee: Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) 4.8
Attendance: 0

Brendan Clegg:

I’m going to put as much effort into this as the players put into the match - very little.

We were so bad it was bizarre, like they know something we don’t. Have they been paid? Do they know we’re going bust if we’re relegated or something?

It seemed to come from nowhere. You couldn’t argue with the lineup or system. Every player was off, tactically Rogers had us sussed and I hate that kit.

Whatever it was, the intensity for this level of football just wasn’t there. Sure, Leicester were brilliant, but the warning signs were there with sloppiness and casual lethargy from the off - it was a miracle we held out for as long as we did and it could’ve been 5 or 6 by half time.

2nd half was marginally better as we went for damage limitation and Leicester eased off but we could easily have succumbed to more goals or a couple of monumentally dumb red/ 2nd yellow cards - Bartley or Yokuslu both probably would have if we’d played a bit longer.

When we did get sniffs at goal our attempts were shockingly bad (M-N/Diagne/Ajayi) or decision making really poor - Phillips right before half time springs to mind, doing well but then shooting on his wrong foot instead of playing Robinson in for a simple finish from which we might’ve triggered hope of an unlikely comeback.

I thought after 2-0/ half an hour we might have got Gallagher on for a but if energy (for literally anyone) but by HT it was over so perhaps the changes thereafter were just about managing the humiliation out and moving onto the next one.

Massive improvement needed for Sunday, just for pride!

  • SJ - 6 No chance with goals, kept us in it.
  • Furlong - 4 Got overloaded and couldn’t cope.
  • O’Shea - 4 Their forwards were too good for him. Exposed.
  • Bartley - 4 A bit of a sitting duck, no protection.
  • Townsend - 4 Same as Furlong but did improve I thought.
  • Mainland-Niles - 3 Criminally bad, lost, awful on the ball and no running.
  • Yokuslu - 4 Way off it. Leicester passed it round him and swarmed him when he had it.
  • Phillips - 3 Couldn’t get going out wide and has a really bad day in the centre.
  • Pereira - 3 Didn’t show enough ad we couldn’t get it to him in dangerous areas.
  • Robinson - 4 Never hid from it and at least tried to make things happen.
  • Diagne - 2 Really poor. Gave us little, didn’t move much and his passing and shooting were terrible.
  • Ajayi - 5 Fair call with hindsight to say his pace should’ve got him in the back four from the off.
  • HRK - 5 Decent honest shift knowing we were beaten already but no threat at all.
  • Grant - 3 No service but little contribution either.

Ancient Baggie:

An absolutely horrible performance. Admittedly Leicester are a good side and they were always likely to be too good for us but the lack of effort and intensity from our players was unacceptable. If this was what we're going to be like after a 10 day break then Villa could be interesting in 2 days time.

Apart from Johnson and O'Shea who at least looked like he was trying to make a few tackles, (he's still a bit raw but you can't knock his commitment) the rest were awful. The last couple of performances had been a welcome change but this was as bad as anything this season. Whilst I understand the change of shape at half time I couldn't understand Robinson being replaced (at least he was running around).

Well I think that's definitely it for this season but there's a bit of local pride to play for in the next couple of weeks so let's hope the other WBA turns up for those two.