Leicester City have consistently struggled to deal with corners this season with Tammy Abraham’s sucker-punch the final nail on the coffin
The Foxes were knocked out of the Europa Conference League on Thursday as Roma came to life in front of a packed Stadio Olimpico.
Jose Mourinho became the first manager to qualify for a European final with four different teams and also became the first man to qualify the final of all European football club cup competitions.
Abraham’s 11th-minute header was enough to see Roma through to their first European final since 1991.
The former Chelsea attacker exposed Leicester’s weak defending of set pieces, and corner kicks especially, for the umpteenth time.
Nigerian duo, Ademola Lookman and Kelechi Iheanacho played 45 minutes each but didn’t have much to do against an organised Roma backline.
Leicester’s corner woes have cost them many goals and points this season as it has become a common occurrence in the Foxes backline.
Despite the return of French defender, Wesley Fofana and experienced Northern Irish defender, Johnny Evans, the Foxes have struggled to deal with corner kicks.
Disapoointed by another painful exit to their inability to defend corners, Rodgers said they don’t show enough physicality in dealing with those balls.
“The corner has been our Achilles heel all season. We’ve tried our structure in the box to defend, man marking, zonal, but clearly we lack physicality in the team to deal with certain situations consistently. It has cost us tonight, ” he said.
Rodgers further blamed their lack of aggression in the first half, one which saw Lookman struggle to assert himself on the game.
“Of course when you lose the second leg of a semi-final it’s disappointing. The second half, we were much better. We forced the game and imposed our way into the game. We had to make changes, I thought we weren’t aggressive enough in the first half.”
