Sadler: A Disappointing Result
- Leicester City fell to a 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa in the Premier League
- Harvey Barnes scored the Foxes’ goal at King Power Stadium
- Adam Sadler reflected on a second City loss in three days
- The First Team Coach took charge of the team alongside Mike Stowell
Harvey Barnes’ goal levelled the scores following Ollie Watkins’ first-half opener, but City would suffer defeat at King Power Stadium, courtesy of substitute Bertrand Traoré’s late strike – after Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was sent off for a second bookable offence.
First Team Coach Sadler led the team alongside Mike Stowell following the departure of Brendan Rodgers on Sunday. He gave his reaction to LCFC TV after a second successive narrow reverse for the Foxes.
“In terms of the result, of course we’re deeply disappointed,” he said. “We’d set up with a plan and an idea to try and contain Aston Villa tonight. Having gone behind in the game, I was pleased with the response of the players to stay positive and stay on the front foot and try and make sure we clawed ourselves back into the game with a fantastic goal.
“It’s typical Harvey Barnes. It’s a fantastic first touch, I think that’s the really big moment in the goal. That sets him up to do what Harvey does, cut inside and place it in that bottom corner.
“We’ve seen him do that a number of times and we see him do it almost daily in training. I’m really pleased with the quality of the goal and it’s a shame it wasn’t a goal to win a game.
“The timing of their second goal is disappointing. You’re hoping you can see it through to at least take a point from the game, but it is what it is, we can only learn from that. We’ve got to get our group back together and prepare for Saturday.”
Responsibility for training and match preparation has been led by two of the Club’s long-serving coaches, with Sadler aware of the need to pick the players up once more.
“We’ve only had a very short time to work with the players yesterday (Monday),” the 43-year-old explained. “It’s really just reminding them of the situation. They know the reality and we’ve got to do something about that immediately.
“The idea tonight was to be as difficult to beat as possible, to be really strong and compact as a block, hard to get through and break down. And on the back of that, to try and catch Aston Villa on the counter attack, which we nearly did.
“We can only be proud of the performance and there’s a lot of learning to do. Of course, there’s certain little things we can improve, and we have to do that before the weekend. But that’s the challenge we face, so we have to get our mind on that now.”
The visit of AFC Bournemouth comes next in the Premier League. Both sides head into Saturday’s fixture inside the bottom three, separated by two points. Sadler is hoping to see the Blue Army get behind the team once more to generate an atmosphere inside King Power Stadium.
He added: “I think when King Power Stadium has got the fans like you saw tonight, behind the team, it can only be a positive thing. The lads really appreciate that, I really appreciate that and Mike and I will really push it.
“We need the same on Saturday. It’s going to be another huge test. We’ve got to be ready for that, but with the fans behind us, we can get a result.”