MADD AND BAD!
Maddison’s dive after howler in front of Gareth
IT is hard to know who will feel worse this morning, Brendan Rodgers or James Maddison.
Rodgers watched his side fail to take advantage of a winnable home game to stay in the relegation zone and different sections of Leicester’s fans chanted for his sacking at full-time. Maddison also had a nightmare of a game in front of the watching England manager Gareth Southgate.
Desperate to impress with a World Cup on the horizon, the gifted midfielder missed a sitter and compounded a disappointing afternoon by diving over the foot of Luka Milivojevic in injury-time to earn himself a booking instead of the penalty he wanted.
Foxes owner Top Srivaddhanaprabha looked stony-faced at full-time. Rodgers will just hope he has enough credit to remain in post for Thursday’s crunch clash against Leeds, when the Foxes will have to do without Maddison, who is now suspended.
‘You are always open to criticism if you’re not winning games,’ said Rodgers.
‘I always felt after our summer transfer market we would have to fight this season and the players are doing that. I thought the performance was good, even if maybe we are not at the top of our game.’
In Leicester’s defence, Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita was man-of-the-match and Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieria admitted: ‘It was challenging for us. The second half was all about them, we didn’t do enough.’
Even so, there was a lack of cohesion in Leicester’s play compared with the side that won the FA Cup in 2021. Talisman Jamie Vardy was held back until the last half-hour and his only meaningful contribution was a lunge on Marc Guehi that earned a booking. Harvey Barnes and Patson Daka showed individual moments but there was less good collective play.
At the end, there were chants of ‘We want Rodgers out’ around the stadium and fans brandished banners that read ‘Board, the time for action is now”.
Leicester started bottom and for all the restrictions of the last window Rodgers was able to name a bench featuring title-winners Vardy and Marc Albrighton, as well as Ayoze Perez and Kelechi Iheanacho, who each cost £25million.
Without the injured Jonny Evans, there were early defensive jitters but Wilf Zaha and Odsonne Edouard wasted opportunities for the visitors.
The Foxes finally got going as an attacking force with Daka testing Guaita, while Barnes would have scored if he’d taken a better first touch in front of goal.
Maddison, operating wide, was neat and tidy in possession but spurned the big moments. Early in the second half, when Barnes cut the ball back to him in the six-yard box, he took an uncharacteristic swipe and shot wastefully over.
From then on, the harder he tried, the worse it got. He dragged one shot wide from 18 yards and another into Guaita’s arms. Right at the end, with Leicester desperate for a winner, he tried to capitalise on a loose touch from Milivojevic and theatrically hit the floor as the Serbian tried to make amends.
Maddison was cautioned for simulation and unfortunately for him, the England manager had stayed to the final whistle to witness it.
‘You can’t judge him [Maddison] on this one game,’ said Rodgers defending his player. ‘He is a guy who is playing out of position for the team because we don’t have a winger.
‘He is a top player at this level. Unfortunately at the end he is looking for the penalty but it wasn’t be.
‘I think he wanted to help and support the team. I haven’t seen it back but presumably he thought there was going to be contact and it didn’t come.
‘We could do without him missing the next game but it is what it is, and it’s a chance for someone else.’ The only silver lining for Southgate was that defender James Justin impressed as a full-back option in case both Reece James and Kyle Walker are ruled out of the World Cup.
Rodgers said he had been given no indication he wouldn’t be taking the Leeds game, with Wolves after that at the weekend. Realistically, he needs to win at least one of those to keep his job beyond the World Cup.
They restricted Palace to one shot on target when Edouard was denied by Danny Ward but one win in 10 tells its own story.