Dean Smith has rued “a very tough night” for his relegation-battling Leicester in a 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool
Having fought hard in the opening 32 minutes, Leicester were rapidly undone by a quick-fire brace from Curtis Jones before Trent Alexander-Arnold’s second-half strike condemned the Foxes to another defeat.
The result means that if Everton and Leeds both win away at Wolves and West Ham next weekend, Leicester must at least snatch a draw at Newcastle on Monday 22 May otherwise the Foxes will be relegated to the Championship.
“It was a very tough night,” commented Smith in his post-match interview to LCFC TV but he admitted that Liverpool were the “best team” and deserved the win.
Smith proceeded to applaud Liverpool for their performance whilst bemusing how his Foxes were eventually outclassed, as he added: “The best team won. They’re a very good team with talented footballers. But on top of that, they are top athletes as well.
“I thought we matched them for 30 minutes until that first goal.
“Our game plan was to keep the ball in front of us and I thought we did that really well but, after 30 minutes, the goalkeeper has put a big ball over the back four and they score from that.”
“The manner of the goals that we’ve given away, certainly just in the six games that I’ve had, have been disappointing. There’s things that we can do about it. Unfortunately, we go behind and we get a bit frantic after that. Obviously, the opposition upped their game a little bit as well and score a second.
“We gave them the second almost straight from the kick-off. That’s the disappointing thing that we weren’t thinking clearly under pressure there. That let us down at times.”
Smith however thought that Alexander-Arnold’s goal should of been disallowed, as he explained: “I don’t think the third should be given. It’s never a free-kick. Jonny Evans has won the tackle and you need things like that to go with you.
“Both of the other goals were marginally onside. Both have gone for VAR and looking back at the stills they are very close. But we have to trust that process.”
Defending has been Leicester’s Achilles heel all season and Smith was not pleased with how his players have defensively reacted to conceding goals, as he added: “I’ve been frustrated with our reactions to goals and the second one, the way we gave them a chance, is something we have to learn from.”
Now in the knowledge that relegation could be confirmed away at Newcastle next Monday, Smith iterated that victories are now imperative if want to take their survival dreams to the very final day of the season.
Explaining his mindset heading into the trip to Tyneside, Smith said: “We haven’t got long to go; we’ve got two games and we know we have to go and win them. We play again Monday and we’ll have a better idea after the weekend games of what we need to do, but we have to get lifted.
“They are Premier League footballers and as I’ve said – these players care. You can’t say there wasn’t fight out on the pitch. There was effort, they put the running numbers in, but unfortunately, we got beat by the better team tonight.
“We create chances against most teams but we’ve got to keep a clean sheet in the last two just to give us a chance.”
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