Leicester City need radical change to stop big problem ruining another season

And so it proved that Leicester City’s biggest problem of the season was their undoing in their biggest game of the season.

In a way, it feels fitting that their campaign has been ended by a corner. It is not an overstatement to suggest that had City been moderately good, or maybe even just ok, at defending set-pieces, this season would have been wildly different.

Goals change games and if City concede the opener from a set-piece, the opposition then have something to defend. They will sit deeper and be more compact. Then, the onus will be on City to break them down and that has been something else they have struggled with this season.

Against Roma, this was in plain view. City’s panic at a corner prompted them to give away another cheaply, from which Roma’s 6ft 3in striker Tammy Abraham easily headed in after beating a marker who was six inches shorter than him.

The height difference between Abraham and Ricardo Pereira prompted questions. Brendan Rodgers said there were too many big men to mark, and not enough tall players in his team to watch them all.

But while Abraham has modestly said he is not that good at heading, he needs to be the priority for City. It’s not just that he is tall, but he is a goal-getter. His instincts in the box, his movement and his finishing, make him a bigger threat than any of the Roma centre-backs, so in that sense it should have been Jonny Evans or Wesley Fofana marking him.

There were other possible solutions. Kasper Schmeichel perhaps could have come for it, as it was only just outside his six-yard box when Abraham got his head to the ball. Not long after, the Dane came and got a strong punch on a corner delivered into a similar area.

City could even have selected different players.