Matchday Live Talking Points: No Complaints From City & The Bigger Picture
- Leicester City were beaten 2-1 by Southampton at King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon
- As usual, LCFC Radio provided over six hours of free coverage
- Matt Elliott, Gerry Taggart and Nev Foulger assessed the action on air at full-time
Dennis Praet opened the scoring for the Foxes with his first goal for the Club, before Stuart Armstrong and Danny Ings netted for the Saints, while VAR also stepped in on several occasions.
Speaking over the course of the final hour of LCFC Radio's extensive matchday coverage, Elliott, Taggart and Foulger picked out their key talking points to take from the clash.
No complaints
Gerry Taggart said: “You have to give credit to Southampton. It was a better second half from Leicester and they got involved in a war of attrition. They were more of a threat in the second half, but Southampton plugged away. When it dropped for them, Danny Ings sealed Leicester’s fate. Leicester looked a little tired, which is understandable, but Southampton played the conditions better and I have no complaints.”
Fine tuning required?
Matt Elliott said: “They have delivered performances lately at West Ham and Newcastle. You don’t get a constant level of performance in a season, it fluctuates. They’re still well and truly in the top four and this is the first time it hasn’t been a ‘big time’ opposition beating them. Southampton were just on it. Some of the players maybe just need a bit of fine tuning to their game as do Leicester generally.”
VAR calls correct
Nev Foulger said: “I agree with Gerry, no complaints for Leicester. [Brendan] Rodgers made two or three substitutions. All the VAR calls were correct if you look at them, there can’t be any complaints about those either. I did think Leicester looked a bit tired, but Rodgers has now got a complete week and I think he’s going to the need it. The players need a rest. You could see what it meant to Southampton.”
Saints deserved to win
Gerry Taggart said: “It's almost impossible to go through a season unbeaten. It’s only Leicester’s fifth loss of the season and there’s no shame in that whatsoever. Today was a day when Leicester, sitting in second, were expected to beat a team sitting in 12th. That shows you why football is such a great game. There’s so many ebbs and flows within a season and Southampton deserved the win, it’s as simple as that.”
A whole week to prepare
Nev Foulger said: “I don’t think it was a case of Leicester being complacent, it was more a case of Southampton being really motivated. They will have spent this week talking about getting a positive result at Leicester for obvious reasons. They’re in a good run of form and it carried on today. For Leicester, it’s about working now in training for the next week, they’ve got a whole week to prepare for Burnley now.”
The bigger picture
Matt Elliott said: “When you look at it, Leicester are second in the league, that may be third on Sunday, a semi-final in the Carabao Cup.... They’re in the fourth round of the FA Cup too and there’s a big possibility of Champions League. They’re all massively positive aspects of the current situation for Leicester at the moment. We’ve got young prospects, seasoned professionals and a top-class manager.”
On Monday, Iwan Roberts, Gerry Taggart and broadcaster Arlo White will analyse the encounter further on Extra-Time from 5:45pm GMT on LCFC Radio.