Leicester City manager Claude Puel knows that defeat to Newcastle United last weekend was a missed opportunity as the side look to secure European football once again for the season of 2018/19.
Hosting Rafa Benitez’s side at the King Power Stadium last Saturday, a poor performance from Leicester saw the visitors take a two one victory on the day.
Claude Puel focused on improving team concentration after a poor first-half and 2-1 defeat to Newcastle. Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/LJw0K9utZc pic.twitter.com/38Ps1wJh9R
— Leicester City (@LCFC) April 8, 2018
Despite having the bulk of possession we did only manage one effort on target and Jamie Vardy’s consolation strike came when we were already two down.
Speaking to lcfc.com as he met with the media following the game, the Frenchman explained.
‘I think today we didn`t play well enough in the first half and it was the same feeling as last week at Brighton. We repeated this performance today and we have missed a good opportunity.’
Why can’t he just say, we weren’t very good or players we have don’t necessarily suit the tactics he wants to play.
— Booko 🦊 🏴🇮🇹 (@booko67) April 8, 2018
Puel was quick to say that the battle for seventh place certainly wasn’t over with a good number of points still to play for as we now look to chase down Burnley who have built up a six point gap, but having rode our luck for a period against Brighton our luck ran out this time around.
‘We have to correct this aspect of our game. We have to perform from the start of the game, because after we have to keep react from going behind. We have to correct this.’
Puel added that Vicente Iborra had been substituted with a hamstring injury but at the time of speaking he was awaiting a full assessment on the severity, however he was full of praise for Hamza Choudhury who came on in his place.
‘It is a good thing now to have a young player like Choudhury coming in. I think he is perhaps the only satisfaction from the game today because he came into the game with good quality, aggressiveness and tempo. He worked very hard and cut out a lot of dangerous balls for us because we pushed a lot in the second half. It was a good performance from him.’
Some fans certainly expressed their frustration at the full time whistle.
Leicester have gone backwards since he took over. Craig just had a hard fixture list at the start of the season
— James (@Leices1) April 8, 2018
— Ay-Ayron 🇹🇭🦊 (@AzaBrown14) April 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/Baller_Barnes/status/982911259678035968
Others had their own thoughts on our current problems and greater possession yet fewer chances hasn’t gone unnoticed..
I am not convinced #concentration is the issue here I think it’s the way he wants us to play. He likes possession football but we won’t win games based purely on possession. We used to be an attacking side but there is little evidence of that at the moment
— Jerry Wesley (@jerrywes) April 8, 2018
