Smith: We must get it right in the head

DEAN SMITH has challenged his

Leicester City players to find their mental edge – and avoid relegation.

The Foxes chief was seething at the individual errors that saw Fulham dish out a Bank Holiday battering.

He blamed the 5-3 defeat on a series of individual mistakes – playmaker James Maddison also questioned the team’s desire – before softening his stance later this week.

Interim manager Smith (above) said: “I felt the second goal down there affected how we approached the rest of the game.

“We’ve shown we can come back from a goal down – it wasn’t so much that.

“But we need to keep concentration and focus and not let goals affect us as much as they do. I certainly felt that with the second.

“We looked a yard off it, if I’m being honest. Whether that was psychological or not, I don’t know – but it appeared to be – because I get the running numbers afterwards and we were slightly higher than Fulham in every metric.

“The psychological bit can let you down. When players go into the game, their decision-making has to be good.”

Since Smith arrived, his team have let in 11 goals in four matches.

With fixtures to come at Newcastle and against West Ham on the final day, any improvement needs to be immediate.

Leicester face a Liverpool side tomorrow that has chalked up six wins on the spin, while the Foxes haven’t kept a clean sheet in their last 20 matches.

Smith added: “We have to be better defensively. We need to find a balance that doesn’t detract from our attacking intent. We need points, we know that.

“You’d look at Liverpool and think it’s not a good time to face them. But they’ve not won as many games on the road as they normally do.“