How are disappointed are you with another defeat at home?
Disappointed would be the right word. I think it was a much-improved performance compared to where we were last week I’d say. I thought we played well for good periods of the game today. We couldn’t turn the good periods into goals and when Leicester got their opportunities, a couple of them given away by us, I felt as if they took them. I thought there was an improved performance from certainly last week. In fact, I thought there was some good play today at times.
What you didn’t need was to concede an early goal?
Correct. We actually started the game really well, I know we conceded a goal but if you said who started the game on the brighter foot, I thought it was certainly us. I thought we gave the ball away and we slipped and before you know it, they got a goal in front and I know we had just started but I don’t think that was deserved at that point. I thought we worked our way back in and created some opportunities but just not good enough today to take them when we got them.
Another game where your performance was good but the result wasn’t?
I think you’d have to say the performance today was pretty encouraging but what didn’t happen was that we didn’t get any goals and we gave away a couple of sloppy mistakes which left us open to be punished really. The second one was an example of that and we were quite similar last week as well. At the moment, any sort of mistakes we make we seem to get punished, but when we are forcing mistakes from the opposition we’re not taking those opportunities.
How low is the dressing room right now?
I thought the players today worked unbelievably hard. I thought they ran 1,000 miles trying to get a result today. The lads were determined to try and make it work for us so it was certainly nothing to do with them not quite at it. They’re low because they are desperate to win, they are low because they are a side who are in the last couple of years used to being sixth or seventh in the Premier League. They are not used to being in the position they are in, with the group we’ve got. From that point of view, they are all disappointed and we all are with that, but we’re also trying to take stock of it saying ‘hey, we’ve got to make sure that we keep it going and get it right.’ I don’t think we are a huge distance away from it, but we’ve got to start showing it by the results.
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers spoke about the benefits of having backing from the board, would you agree with that?
Yes. I’m really grateful to our club for the support they’ve given me. I’d also like to say I think I’ve done not bad for them over the last two and a half years either, so I think it works both ways. We’ve tried to work together, but Brendan has been there as well and he knows that in football we’ve all been there and know how the business works. We’ve done a lot of good things but we can’t find a way of scoring goals at the moment. Whatever we do we can’t find a way, we’ve not got our set pieces as good as what we’ve had or whatever it may be. We’ve had lots of situations like that, we’re not getting goals in open play as regularly as we’d hope. It’s not for the want of trying and not for trying to get that to work.
Does this World Cup break come at the right time for you?
We knew there was a break coming so we all take the break now. You’d rather go into the break in good form than you would bad form, that’s for sure. We have to accept it. We come back and get ourselves ready and dust ourselves down and ready to go again. Well, there was no risk up until the warm-up and it was only when the physio pulled me and said his knee looks a bit stiff, I’m going to take him in and give him a quick flush, give him something in his knee. The word I got was that he was fine and ready to start. I had prepared Nayef to start but Kurt said he was okay. So, we followed the physios who told me he was okay.
Where was Michail Antonio today?
Michail picked up a bit of a virus so he wasn’t available today.
The team were booed at the end. Do you fear things could turn quite toxic?
Well, look, people are right because they’re not used to being in this position, they’re more used to being sixth or seventh in the league. Last year, probably at this time we were challenging for Champions League, we’d been in the top four for long periods. So, I can understand that. Our home form – up until last Sunday our home form had been really good. This week has been the one, prior to that our home form has been very good. I can understand, people want winning teams, and want to be at the top of the league – so do we, so do the players. That’s what we’re planning to do next.
Is Declan Rice shouldering a lot of pressure right now?
Boy, oh boy he played well today, didn’t he? He was terrific. The best player on the pitch, once again, by a mile. He’s a terrific player and he’s at many times carrying the team because he’s such a good player and we need everybody to get up to the levels. I think we made quite a lot of opportunities from balls into the box but we weren’t able to finish them off and that’s been a bit the story of our season so far.
Personally, how have you found this recent dip in form?
It’s not that you end up being personal with it, you just end up being disappointed that you’ve not got a result. We’ve not been in this kind of run of form for maybe three years now. We’ve been in good form but like any team, if you’re growing – if you’re Manchester City or Liverpool you’re not expecting it – but nearly all the other teams have ups and downs.
I could go back and tell you about years at Everton where we finished sixth, then the next year only finished 13th, then went back and finished fifth. So, I think while you’re trying to grow a team and grow a club and build it again, it takes time. And just to finish, we brought in good players who quite often clubs bring in good players and those players take time, especially the boys from overseas, to settle in. I think we just need to give those new players a little bit of time to settle in and not be expecting so much straight away in their first season. Quite often, I’ve got a few in my head I could name, the first season’s not easy and the second season’s a lot better. We hope that’s the case.
