Leicester need to stop long-term trend of conceding first to stay up

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s stoppage-time equaliser for Crystal Palace on Saturday denied Leicester City a first league win of the season, but the visitors took a big step forward at Selhurst Park.

Manager Steve Cooper felt aggrieved at the manner of Mateta’s first goal, which came shortly after Leicester had gone 2-0 up at the start of the second half. It was ruled offside on the pitch but then overturned after a VAR review. The imagery published publicly by the Premier League Match Centre seemed inconclusive and Cooper urged Leicester’s executives to push for an explanation.

It would be a futile request but Cooper’s side bucked what had become a worrying trend — the draw at Palace was the first time in their four league matches this season that Leicester hadn’t conceded the opening goal, and only the fourth time they had avoided doing so in 25 Premier League fixtures.

It is a run that takes in the tenures of three managers — Brendan Rodgers, Dean Smith and Cooper.

It was a timely turnaround in fortunes as the omens were not good had Leicester conceded first for a fourth game out of four since their return to the top flight. Leicester have only conceded first in each of their first four games in a Premier League season twice — 1994-95 and 2001-02. Both campaigns ended with them being relegated.

There have been plenty of changes in personnel from when the sequence began, with only three players who started the Fulham game on January 3, 2023 — a 1-0 home defeat thanks to a 17th-minute strike from Aleksandar Mitrovic — also beginning Saturday’s draw with Palace: Wout Faes, Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy. But Leicester have been slow starters in the Premier League during the period in between, no matter who they fielded or faced.

Nine of the 21 opening goals they have conceded have come in the game’s opening 20 minutes, and all but two have come in the first half.

Four have come from corners, and two from free kicks — including the Willian free kick that was swung in from the touchline at Craven Cottage in May 2023 and began the 5-3 defeat that pushed Leicester closer to the relegation edge (Amadou Onana’s finish this season from a well-worked Aston Villa free kick at King Power Stadium was the other). There has been one penalty, by Dominic Calvert-Lewin in a 2-2 draw at home against Everton the week before the trip to Fulham mentioned above, and six have come from shots from outside the box.

Conceding first hasn’t always led to a defeat. Leicester have fought back to draw five of those 21 games, including the opening day draw with Tottenham Hotspur this season, and to win on three occasions.

It isn’t the first time Leicester have experienced such a trend.

During the 2018-19 season, when Claude Puel was manager until being replaced in the February by Rodgers, they had the joint-worst record for conceding goals in the first 15 minutes (12), along with Wolves. They also conceded seven goals in the last 15 minutes.

“The best teams start quickly and finish strong,” Rodgers said, shortly after taking over as manager. “I highlighted that when I came in, and now we’re starting to get the first goals in games. That’s because we’re a team where we have to go and search. It’s about a mindset and it’s a tactic in our game.”

Puel’s low-intensity training sessions were blamed. The Frenchman was also accused of failing to possess the motivational skills to spark Leicester to life on matchdays. Yet the trend returned four years later towards the end of Rodgers’ tenure.

He was sacked after a 2-1 away defeat against Palace on April 1, 2023. Ironically, that day Leicester had opened the scoring through Ricardo Pereira in the 56th minute but suffered defeat, to a Mateta stoppage-time goal.

The only other times during that period where Leicester didn’t concede the first goal were the goalless draw away to Newcastle United, under interim manager Smith, in the penultimate game of the season, and the ultimately futile 2-1 final-day win over West Ham United when Harvey Barnes put them one up in the 34th minute. Everton’s 1-0 win against Bournemouth sent them down.

It is hard to pinpoint a single cause of such a trend but there could be some psychological factors, especially in 2022-23 as confidence levels tumbled and a fear factor emerged. Leicester’s players, a group unaccustomed to struggling after several years of success, and a rising expectation of continuing the broad trend of positive results, would start matches worried about making an early mistake, which quickly became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“We were going into games, fearing teams that we should never have been fearing,” long-time Leicester winger Marc Albrighton revealed on Ben Foster’s podcast. That anxiety could have been crippling Leicester as the pressure mounted towards the end of that season and relegation loomed.

Those mental scars have healed to an extent, with so many players from that squad having moved on.

The issue for this season’s players may have more to do with understanding the demands of a new manager and a fresh game plan after last season’s promotion and Enzo Maresca’s subsequent departure to Chelsea.

Leicester are still trying to settle into a new identity, which can have an impact on decision-making in the early phases of matches.

At home against Tottenham on the season’s opening weekend, Leicester look to be in good shape here. But they are about to concede the game’s first goal.

James Maddison comes deep to get on the ball…

… and as he passes wide to Son Heung-min, Leicester drop off further and Abdul Fatawu is drawn over to help full-back James Justin, who has split from the central defenders to close Son down. Bobby De Cordova-Reid is tracking Pedro Porro, but is not goal-side.

As Leicester’s defence shifts, Son simply returns the pass to Maddison, who is in acres of space. Harry Winks moves out to close him down but the former Leicester man plays a superb ball that picks out Porro’s unchecked run and his glancing header beats goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.

In the next game, away to Fulham, again the opposition play out from the back. The Leicester press looks disjoined, with no backup for the initial press of Vardy and Facundo Buonanotte as Kenny Tete receives the ball in the right-back position. Central defender Faes is drawn out from the back to track the run of Andreas Pereira.

Tete played a simple high ball to target man Rodrigo Muniz. With Faes out of position and Victor Kristiansen struggling to track Adama Traore’s run inside, Leicester already look exposed at the back. Justin is now isolated in the middle of the pitch, with Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith Rowe running forward into the huge area that has opened up. Fatawu is still facing the other way.

Traore takes the ball and runs across the pitch as Leicester scramble to get back into position, but Iwobi and Smith Rowe are in great positions to attack. While Justin does get back to Smith Rowe after Traore picks him out with a pass, it is not in time to stop him skipping into the box and finishing past Hermansen.

Against Aston Villa in match three, Leicester have a free kick to defend after Oliver Skipp was penalised, harshly according to Cooper. But they then had nine outfield players in a line to defend against five Villa players, with Ndidi and Faes the closest to Onana.

Youri Tielemans, another former Leicester favourite, plays a clever pass into space for Jacob Ramsey, whose run from deep caught Leicester on the back foot.

Again, Leicester have to scramble back, with Ndidi and Caleb Okoli moving to cover Hermansen on the goal line, but Faes stops just inside the penalty box and Onana is open for Ramsey to pick out to score.

Before the trip to Palace, Cooper was aware of the issue but heartened by how Leicester had fought back when trailing 1-0 in each of those first three games.

“What you are seeing is a really committed group of players,” Cooper said. “We don’t want to be going a goal down every game, but we have. We have always responded by getting back into the game. That is a good sign of character and resilience, not hiding and not giving up.

“I have been really pleased with that, but we need that mentality for every part of the game, how we start games and how we finish them, and how we manage certain moments of games.”

Come the match at Selhurst Park, Leicester bucked the trend to score first, and started the second half looking even more lively, but couldn’t close out the game by scoring another late goal.

Managing both aspects will be key to Leicester’s relegation survival bid this season, and Cooper’s men remain a work in progress.

(Top photos: Getty Images)