Debrief from Leicester City press conference as Dean Smith discusses big topics following the draw with Everton and ahead of the trip to Fulham
Jamie Vardy missed his last one while Youri Tielemans and James Maddison have missed their last two, so deciding who takes Leicester City’s next penalty is not a simple dilemma.
After Maddison’s miss from 12 yards in Monday’s draw with Everton, a potentially crucial moment in the club’s season, Dean Smith said he’d weigh up whether the attacking midfielder would step up if City were awarded another one in their final four matches.
But, for fans, it seems it will be a case of waiting to see who picks up the ball should a referee point to the spot. Smith said that, so far, no decision had been taken.
“As of yet, no, there hasn’t been,” Smith said at his press conference this week when asked if there had been any discussions on the club’s penalty duties. “Madders was down to take the penalty and unfortunately missed. Since then, we haven’t discussed it.”
Maddison’s total record for City, including penalty shoot-outs, is now four from nine (44 percent), a record that pales in comparison to Vardy’s (82 percent) and Tielemans’ (83 percent). Apart from the injured Kelechi Iheanacho, nobody else in the City squad has ever taken a penalty outside of a shoot-out, so it seems the candidate will be one of the main three.
It is clear that the manager is not happy with how his team defended on Monday night, and that’s to be expected. Going into the match, Everton had scored the fewest goals in the Premier League this season, but City let them score twice, and still needed Daniel Iversen to pull off a number of excellent saves.
It was the highest number of shots the Toffees have had in any game this season, and it was not like they were from range. Everton have averaged six shots per match from inside the penalty area this season, but against City, they had 18. Smith’s disappointment in the defensive display was a big talking point in this week’s press conference.
“We made the game too open and gave too many chances away,” he said. “In the games, we’ve had previously, we’ve created good chances and we’ve not given too many away.
“That was my disappointment, that we gave some big chances away and not protected our goalkeeper enough. Our goalkeeper made some good saves, and he had to. That defensive organization was the bit that disappointed me the most.
“We’ve got four games left and believe we can take points in all four, but we have to make sure our defensive performance is better than it was against Everton.
“I believe there are goals in the team and there’s quality in the team to produce those moments but it’s been a long time since we had a clean sheet and it’s about time we got one of those as well.”
Later on, Smith said “little tweaks” were required to fix the defensive woes, and then when asked to elaborate, his answer gave a hint as to where changes might come in his team selection.
He felt it was the midfield where there were issues that needed addressing, admitting that they were too easy to cut through on the counter. He chose a trio of Wilfred Ndidi, Boubakary Soumare, and Tielemans against Everton, but has Papy Mendy, Dennis Praet, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall he could turn to.
“We need to protect the middle of the pitch better than we did,” he said. “We were quite open on transitions and it became a basketball game. I don’t think we can afford to do that.”
No final-day drama for Smith as the goal difference highlighted
The overall picture of the relegation battle itself and the points required for survival is not a topic Smith talks about too regularly, such is his desire to focus on one game at a time.
But he did express his eagerness to avoid final-day drama. The city plays West Ham in their last game, just as Smith’s Villa did three years ago when they got a point and stayed up by the skin of their teeth.
Smith also pointed out the benefits of City’s goal difference, which is 11 better than any of the other four teams in the relegation battle.
“I wouldn’t say I’m desperate, but I’d like to avoid it (going to the final game),” he said. “I’d like to be safe as soon as possible. We can only take one game at a time and see where it leaves us.
“The draw against Everton, we’d like to have had a win, but it moved us two places up the table, such is our goal difference. That probably gives us a point over the rest of the teams down there. We have to concentrate on being better defensively against Fulham. If we do that, we can get a good result.”
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