Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has blamed “costly moments” for their latest bad run of form as he faced up to the fight for Premier League survival.
The Foxes have suffered five straight defeats in all competitions, including their FA Cup exit at the hands of Blackburn, and they are in a perilous position of 16th in the table, level on points with Bournemouth who occupy the final relegation place.
Next up, Leicester take on in-form Brentford, who have only lost once in 14 league matches as they chase a place in Europe.
Rodgers has pinpointed the lack of concentration behind Leicester’s run of four straight league defeats.
He told a press conference: “We’ve had costly moments within games – when I analyse and watch us play we have had some really good moments but then there’s moments within the games which are costing us.
“For me it’s not about the capability because the players have that, it’s not about the knowledge, it’s about concentration and the minute you switch off at this level, you get punished.
“We are under no illusions of the task, we now have 12 games left and virtually competing with nine teams now and we want to finish on top of that.”
Leicester’s visit to Brentford will be the last game before the international break.
It has been a below-par season for the club and they are looking to avoid their worst finish since being promoted back the top flight in 2014, their lowest being 14th at the end of the 2014-15 campaign.
Rodgers has underlined the task to keep Leicester in the Premier League as a coaching challenge and thinks the break could allow players to come back fresher, ready for the home straight.
“It’s always good if you can go into an international break with a positive result and performance so that’s what we will aim to do.
“Sometimes they can allow players to recover mentally – it’s been a tough season for us but it will also be about having that freshness because we know when we come back it will be foot to the floor all the way through.
“I want to ensure the players are mentally fresh, the staff are fresh as well so we can make a push for it as well as doing some very important work.”
Brentford have only lost one league game at home this season, 3-0 to league leaders Arsenal back in September.
They are sitting eighth in the league after their latest victory over Southampton in midweek and Rodgers has been impressed with Thomas Frank’s side over the course of their two seasons in the top tier.
He continued: “What I really enjoy watching about Brentford is that they have not been affected yet by the Premier League.
“What I’m saying is sometimes when you are in the league for a period of time you can stop doing the basics of the game well like running and fighting.
“This is a team that came up from the Championship and are still hungry to do that so they do the basics of the game well with good organisation and talent.”
