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Fulham vs Leicester City: Why did James Maddison think they were ‘too easy to play against’?

After the match, Leicester City’s attacking midfielder James Maddison rued the poor start they made against Fulham in the first half.

By Karthik Raman | May 9, 2023 | 3 Min Read

Leicester City suffered a big blow in their bid to survive the Premier League relegation battle after going down to Fulham. The Foxes lost the entertaining contest 5-3 in the end, as they remain in massive trouble ahead of the final few matches of the season. Considering the position Leicester find themselves in the table, every point counts for them. Hence, to lose a game of this magnitude would surely hurt the players and their supporters.

After the match, Leicester City’s attacking midfielder James Maddison rued the poor start they made against Fulham in the first half. “It’s been one of those seasons. We just struggled early on again and gave ourselves too much to do. When it’s half-time and you’re 3-0 down away from home in the Premier League, it’s very, very rare that you can come and get back into it. It’s very tough to get anything from the game from there. We did well in the second half to get back into it, but it’s nowhere near good enough,” he told LCFC TV.

Maddison believes Leicester have goals in them, however, it is not conceding them in the defensive third is a bigger problem for them. “It’s just not clicking off the ball at the minute, for whatever reason. We haven’t kept enough clean sheets, that’s the problem. We keep going behind in games and chasing the game. You leave yourself too much to do, and that was the case today. It was a strange game. We had big chances in the first half as well. We always look like we’re going to score, there’s goals in the team, there’s creativity – that’s not our problem,” he elaborated.

‘It’s frustrating because we work so hard’

The Leicester City attacking midfielder then went on to explain why they were “too easy to play against” on occasions. “The problem is defensively and I’m not talking about the defence, I’m talking about us as a team defensively. Whether that’s defending the box or pressing, it’s too easy to play against. It’s frustrating because we work so hard on the training ground and try to be more difficult to play against. We’re all trying to put our ideas forward on how we’re going to do that. It’s everything defensively,” he explained.

“You don’t have a team and then the attackers attack and the defenders defend and, if you concede, it’s the defenders’ fault and if you score, it’s the attackers’ positive. That’s not how it works. Just like today, we tried to press a little bit and force it on the sides, but then they just got out too easily and, for example, in the first half, Harry Wilson was coming in off the line causing us a problem and we just didn’t get it right. He just he was receiving it in areas and they just bypass our press. Then they were just attacking our goal and it’s disappointing.”

James Maddison on supporters

James Maddison then turned the attention to the traveling supporters, saying that he can understand their frustrations. “We’re all fighting for the same thing here. Fans, players… sometimes I wish the fans and the supporters could see what goes on behind the scenes, just to see how hard we’re working to try and put it right. It just wasn’t good enough from us today. We accept that and look ourselves in the mirror,” he stated.

“We’re not trying to butter it up. You hear some of the chants, and it’s not nice, but they’re entitled to their opinion. They pay their money, they come down to London. It’s not an easy trip. It’s not cheap, so it’s just apologies to them. We’ll keep trying to work harder. I promise that we’re trying to put it right. I hope the fans can dust themselves down and get behind us, because we need them and hopefully we can reach the end goal together.”