Extra-Time Talking Points: Fans Returning, Making History & A Season Review
- Matt Elliott, Iwan Roberts and Steve Walsh featured on Monday night’s episode of LCFC Radio's Extra-Time show
- The three Leicester City legends assessed the Foxes' final game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday
- The Blue Army was present on Filbert Way for the first time since March 2020, with 8,000 fans in the stadium
- The panel also reviewed the season, picking out their best moments, including City’s Emirates FA Cup Final triumph
Monday evening’s episode included the thoughts of three former Leicester City stars, who joined presenter Dan Bates to discuss all the key talking points from Sunday’s season finale against Tottenham Hotspur, as well as how the Foxes have fared throughout 2020/21.
Brendan Rodgers' side finished fifth in the Premier League standings, qualifying for a second successive season in the UEFA Europa League and also winning the Emirates FA Cup for the first time in the Club’s history.
A season to be proud of
Iwan Roberts said: “We wanted things to happen elsewhere, which they did with Aston Villa taking points off Chelsea, but we always said that Leicester had to take care of their own business and couldn’t focus on other things and events away from King Power Stadium. Sadly, they just couldn’t overcome Spurs. I think they went too defensive a little bit too early. But looking back, we were bitterly disappointed, I was gutted for the Football Club, but still what an unbelievable, fantastic season it’s been for Leicester City once again.”
The Blue Army’s return
Steve Walsh said: “It was great to be back and seeing the fans coming into the ground and the happy faces before the game. It did hurt, but I’ve had time to reflect on everything and to watch the ceremonies after the game and I thought it was quite touching. Let’s not take anything away from these lads. They’ve given us everything they could in terms of effort, commitment and everything else that has gone with it. What a season this has been.”
Making history
Matt Elliott said: “The FA Cup Final and how closely fought that contest was, it literally could have gone either way. Thankfully on the day it went Leicester’s way, and we know about all the drama at the end. Things didn’t quite go Leicester way on Sunday, there was a little bit of controversy about the second goal and the third goal with the handball, and that was the real killer blow. Leicester were still in with a shout when it was 2-2. Kasper Schmeichel was claiming about the foul and it was an ill-timed rare error from him under a little bit of pressure. The opportunity was there, but it wasn’t to be, basically.”
Missing key players
Iwan Roberts said: “When James Justin picked up that cruciate knee ligament injury, he was on the verge of being called up for England. People were talking about him going to the Euros. When Harvey Barnes was having the best goalscoring season of his career, nine Premier League goals he’d scored, he was causing problems to any defence he was coming up against and then he misses the whole of the second half of the season. James Maddison picked up that hip injury and he missed six, seven weeks and came back and didn’t really hit the heights that he’d shown in the first half of the season. The big one for me going into the last four games was Jonny Evans. He didn’t play in the last four Premier League games and Leicester lost three of those and conceded 11 goals. That just shows the importance of Evans for Leicester City. It was a massive hole to fill with him being missing.”
Praise for the manager
Steve Walsh said: “Brendan Rodgers has performed miracles in a sense of how he’s rotated, how he’s juggled things around on and off the field, events that have happened throughout this season which have been difficult. Injuries which he has never complained about, you’ve got to give him and the team a lot of respect for everything that they’ve done this season. If you had to choose between top four and winning the FA Cup, it is the FA Cup for me because it is a prestigious award.”
Always looking to improve
Matt Elliott said: “It highlighted a few little areas that Leicester need to look at in the close season. I’m sure Brendan Rodgers would have detected that anyway, but the squad isn’t as deep as we’d like it to be in comparison to some of the other competitors at the top end of the Premier League. People understand why that is, but without the cut and thrust of Harvey Barnes at the back end of the season, it’s been tough going and thankfully Kelechi Iheanacho stood up and was counted and contributed unbelievably well, but they were grafting and grinding through that final quarter of the season. To come out of it with a major trophy, participation in a European competition next season and all that entails, the Club is on the up, it’s progressing in all sorts of areas and things are not too shabby.”