Little respite for Brendan Rodgers as Leicester draw blank with Crystal Palace

Even the boos felt a touch halfhearted as apathy reigned at the final whistle, when a section of Leicester supporters made their disdain clear, calling for Brendan Rodgers to be sacked. The hosts played out a lethargic draw with Crystal Palace that does little to ease the pressure on their manager, whose side remain marooned in the relegation zone after one win from 10 games.

Gareth Southgate was in the stands but this was an afternoon when nobody did themselves any favours, with James Maddison booked for a dive deep into four minutes of second-half stoppage time.

Rodgers acknowledged the onus was on his players to rouse supporters with a performance to get behind, preempting the predictably subdued atmosphere that filled this stadium before and after the final whistle, and this stalemate surely sapped any glimmer of enthusiasm. Leicester were not dreadful but they were painfully harmless, probing with little joy and lacking conviction when it mattered.

Harvey Barnes came alive in the first half, darting inside Joel Ward and playing a one-two with Patson Daka, again preferred to Jamie Vardy in attack. But the Leicester winger ran out of road and Vicente Guaita rushed out of goal, skidding on his knees to put the barriers up.

Palace also underwhelmed and aside from Odsonne Édouard forcing a fine save from Danny Ward, who clambered low to his right to prevent a second-half shot that went through the legs of Daniel Amartey squeezing in at his near post, they barely worked the worst defence in the league.

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Eberechi Eze lashed a shot over after Wilfried Zaha, who was muted, shifted the ball infield and Édouard earlier squared without