Murdered at the Vicarage

Leicester turned in their worst performance of the season so far at Vicarage Road this afternoon and, in truth, were lucky to lose by a scoreline of 2-1 to Watford. Both of the hosts goals were scored by  players on loan from Udinese - Almen Abdi and Fernando Forestieri. Clearly manager Gianfranco Zola has attracted some talented players to the club. That said, Watford were not terribly impressive and Pearson will be disappointed with his team's performance. Leicester squandered possession of the ball too easily, seemed lacklustre in attack, left too many gaps at the back and were on the back foot for the majority of the game. It took just 14 minutes for Watford to take advantage of City's sloppy start to the game. Abdi struck the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area. The Foxes never recovered and didn't look like getting back into the match, with just 3 attempts on target in the whole match.

Pearson had set Leicester up with five players across midfield. Knockaert and Marshall wide, with King, Drinkwater and James central. At half-time, Dyer replaced Drinkwater and Leicester reverted to four across midfield with Knockaert in a free role. It was the right move, although some would question whether Drinkwater should have been the man to make way. Just after the hour mark, two more substitutions followed. Marshall and Knockaert, two of Leicester's most creative players, were replaced by Waghorn and Futacs. It seemed a very strange move and was greeted with boos from the visiting supporters. Knockaert disappeared down the tunnel, only to return a few moments later, having been pursued by a member of the backroom staff. The changes didn't have the desired effect. Forestieri doubled Watford's lead from close range just five minutes later.

Nugent pulled a goal back for City with 20 minutes left on the clock. Konchesky clipped a clever cross to the back post, Nugent cut the ball back and fired home past Almunia. Leicester pushed for an equaliser but never looked like finding one and certainly didn't deserve to. Whitbread was sent off with 8 minutes remaining, and this will give the manager a defensive headache ahead of Tuesday's trip to Bolton. St. Ledger is still recovering from injury and Leicester's lack of defensive cover has been a concern all season. Wes Morgan was excellent again today and without him, the defeat could have been even heavier. Morgan will need to be at his absolute best on Tuesday night to help his side improve on a disappointing return of just 7 points from 7 away games this season.