Leicester City players should not believe the hype around them, Dean Smith has told his squad with the manager shocked by the performance at Fulham. City were thumped at Craven Cottage to be plunged deeper into relegation trouble, only two late consolation goals hiding how one-sided the encounter was. The first half was when the damage was done, with Smith surprised by how poorly his team started, the manager “very worried” by what he saw in the first 45 minutes. While the feeling around City is that they are a “good team” with “good players”, he has had to tell them “the facts”, given the amount of evidence to the contrary.
Dean Smith said: “The game was lost in the first half. The performance in the first half was nowhere near what it has been and what the players can produce. I’m disappointed because I didn’t see that coming. We’ve had a good week in training with a good attitude and good application and good quality. I expected a far better performance and a far better start than we got. Unfortunately at this level, if you give the kind of goals away that we gave away, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
Asked if nerves got the better of the squad,
Dean Smith said: “I haven’t felt that with the group. Unfortunately I have to tell them that people keep saying they’re good players and they’re a good team, but we’ve lost too many games already this season. So they have to be aware of the facts and they have to perform better than they did today.”
Diagnosing City’s woes, Smith also said they were “mentally fragile” after conceding the first goal, having now done so in 17 of the past 18 games, while neither does he believe they pressed hard enough.
Dean Smith said: “I was certainly very worried in that first half today. We got better in the second half. That’s the first time I’ve seen it with these players. I hope I don’t see that again. I’m sure I won’t.
Asked to clarify,
Dean Smith said: “It’s not a lack of fight, we just didn’t get close enough to them. I think the first goal… mentally we’re fragile for conceding goals. That, I felt, affected us. We never got close enough to them after that. When we were pressing, it became a jog rather than a sprint. You saw from Fulham’s third goal how well they press as a group together. They’re the things we have to get right in the next three games.”
