Even the boos felt a touch half-hearted as apathy reigned at the final whistle, when a section of Leicester supporters made their disdain clear, calling for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked. In the stands the chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, shook his head in frustration alongside Jon Rudkin, Leicester’s director of football, and fans unfurled a banner that read: “Board – the time for action is now!”
On the pitch, a lethargic and forgettable goalless draw with Crystal Palace, who also underwhelmed, does little to ease the pressure on Rodgers, whose side remain marooned in the relegation zone after one win from 10 games this season.
Rodgers spoke to Leicester’s owner, who he refers to as “Top”, on Friday and said he understands the mood music. “When we were finishing fifth and winning the FA Cup I had critics, and when you’re at the bottom you’ll definitely have critics,” Rodgers said. “They [the ownership] understand the difficulties there are going to be this year in terms of us not being able to improve. Naturally if you can’t strengthen and other teams do then you’re going to get overtaken. He [the chairman] has given me support and the football team as much support as he possibly could. He’s been rewarded for that. He is like us, he wants to win and do well. Now in a tough period and a tough time, he’s still being supportive. How long that lasts? We’ll see.”
The chances to get a rotten season back on track keep slipping away. The 4-0 rout of Nottingham Forest is the anomaly in a wretched start. Leicester threw away leads in heavy defeats at Brighton and Tottenham, put in a wishy-washy display in defeat at Bournemouth last weekend and while they were much improved defensively here, they hardly convinced. Rodgers’s side were painfully harmless, probing with little joy and lacking conviction when it mattered.
Gareth Southgate was in the stands but this was an afternoon when nobody did themselves any favours, with James Maddison booked for a desperate dive deep into four minutes of second-half stoppage time, a caution that rules him out of Thursday’s match at home to Leeds.
“I think it is a frustration for him more than anyone because he wants to help the team and support the team,” Rodgers said.
“When you miss a player of that level, of course in the position we’re in we could do without it. He is one of the most talented and creative players in the league.”
It is hard to escape the feeling that nothing is working for Rodgers and Leicester. Maddison was perhaps guilty of trying too hard. He screwed a shot wide from the edge of the D in one breath, ballooned a wayward shot over in another and sent a free-kick straight into an unforgiving Palace wall. Timothy Castagne failed to trap James Justin’s perfect cross at the back post and Harvey Barnes ran out of road after playing a neat one-two with Patson Daka, again preferred to Jamie Vardy in attack. Barnes darted inside Joel Ward, the Palace captain, and latched on to the return pass but the ball bobbled off him and Vicente Guaita rushed out of the Palace goal, skidding on his knees to put the barriers up.
Rodgers acknowledged the onus was on his players to rouse supporters with a performance to get behind, preempting the predictably subdued atmosphere that filled this stadium before and after full time, and this stalemate surely sapped any glimmer of enthusiasm.
Palace were also guilty of being flat and aside from Odsonne Édouard forcing a fine save from Danny Ward, who dived low to his right to prevent a second-half shot squeezing in at his near post, they barely worked the worst defence in the league.
“We didn’t do enough to win the game,” said Patrick Vieira, the Palace manager. “We didn’t take enough risks. We didn’t play forward enough. We didn’t play with enough tempo.”
Towards the end of the first half Eberechi Eze lashed a shot over after Wilfried Zaha, who was muted, shifted the ball infield and Édouard earlier squared without finding a Palace shirt in the six-yard box. Leicester’s crowd were understandably restless and Vieira cut a weary figure as stoppage time loomed. He was not the only one.
