Leicester City v Brighton: The Foxes view with Leicester Till I Die
On paper, Leicester City v Brighton looks like a home banker – but as we discovered when we put our heads together with Foxes fan site Leicester Till I Die, looks can often be deceiving.
Brendan Rodgers is suffering from an injury list longer than War and Peace. Leicester have been much better away from home so far this season than at the King Power and they cannot take a set piece to save their life.
Brighton have been much better on the road too. 11 of the 18 goals that Graham Potter’s side have conceded have come from set pieces, so if the Foxes are so woeful at them them maybe the Albion will not give away as many goals. And Solly March and Tariq Lamptey in particular have the ability to terrify a makeshift Foxes back three.
Having said all that, we have all been Brighton fans long enough to know that when there is such hope, it inevitably ends in disappointment.
Here is what Chris Forryan from Leicester Till I Die had to say ahead of Brighton making the trip to the King Power – including the score predictions of some former Foxes players, who may surprise you with their thoughts.
Leicester spent most of last season looking likely to qualify for the top four, only to fall away and end up in the Europa League? What happened and would you still class it as a successful campaign?
If I had the answer to that, I’d be on the phone to Brendan! As they say, it is a marathon not a sprint and we hit the wall. If you had given me fifth and Europa League qualification at the start of the season I would have bitten your hand off.
Did that finish ramp up the pressure on Brendan Rodgers at all?
Not really. Look, the Premier League winning season was a one off. Yes we won it and that can never be taken away from us, but as much as we won it the big six threw it away that season.
But we have struggled since then and gone through a few managers due to trying to live up to that title season. So for a team like Leicester to finish in the top six, as we did last season and have done so far this season, is credit to Brendan. Breaking into the big six has always been a bit of an impossibility. What we need to try and do is make it the big seven.
What are Leicester’s realistic aims for the 2020-21 season and how happy have you been with your start?
Our realistic aims should be finishing fourth in league and qualifying from our Europa League group, but expectations are a little all over the place after what could have been last season and the way we finished.
Taking off the blue tinted spectacles, then yes I am happy with the start we have made as qualifying for the Europa League should be a minimum and we are on course to do that.
Being greedy, you would say that when we get all our players back we should be pushing for the top four and I think we can go far in Europe. I’d be looking at the quarters in the Europa League.
What are this Leicester side’s strengths? And are there any weaknesses that Brighton could look to exploit?
We have absolutely no defence right now. Our injury list has been the worse in the Premier League, officially! Whilst some are slowly coming back, we still have four recognised defenders out and our left side could be either Christian Fuchs who has been forced into playing more games in 10 weeks than the previous two seasons combined or young Luke Thomas.
With so many injuries, Brendan seems to have found himself stick having to play a back three which has not looked good in the past few games.
What did you make of our the meetings between Brighton and Leicester last season?
We had a good win at your place when we were on our good run. At the Kind Power post lockdown we were slowly self destructing and it says a lot that Leicester 0-0 Brighton at ours was probably one of our better results in the run in.
If you could sign one Brighton player for Leicester, who would it be?
No surprise here, a player who made his debut against us in that game at the King Power and that is Tariq Lamptey. Although we have good options at right back this season, that awful injury list has shown our squad still needs strengthening – especially if we want regular European football and to compete on multiple fronts.
Finally, what is the Leicester Till I Die prediction for Leicester v Brughton please?
You seem to play better away from home – and the problem is so do we! We are always capable of conceding a goal but having said that, I can never predict against my team so I have gone 2-1 to City.
We run a prediction league with some ex-City players and they had a mixed bag of predictions. Steve Walsh said 2-1 to Leicester, Steve Lynex went for a 1-1 draw and Ian Marshall reckons Brighton are going to win 2-1.
Thanks to Chris for answering our questions. There is absolutely loads going on over at Leicester Till I Die ahead of Leicester v Brighton and in general, including the Opposition View where we gave Chris our thoughts ahead of the game at the King Power. And don’t forget to follow Leicester Till I Die on Twitter too.
