James Maddison admits Leicester City's defensive woes are undermining their survival efforts as they continue to flounder alongside Leeds United in the Premier League relegation battle. Leicester were thrashed 5-3 at Fulham on Bank Holiday Monday, with victories for relegation rivals Everton and Nottingham Forest enough to see both the Foxes and Leeds drop into the bottom three, level on 30 points with three games remaining.
Leicester have leading 64 goals in 35 games so far, with only Forest (65), Bournemouth (67), and Leeds (69) conceding more. And, asked after the defeat at Craven Cottage whether 'defensive disorganisation' was the problem against Fulham once again, Maddison admitted: "We conceded five goals, what do you think?
"The problem has never really been about scoring goals with us, we've got players that will score goals. We just can't get the defensive things right and that's why we are where we are.
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"And that's not just the defence, it's the defence as a team."
Leicester were 3-0 down at half-time and Fulham added a fourth goal early in the second half before the Foxes pulled one back, only for the hosts to restore their four-goal cushion soon after. Leicester scored twice in the final ten minutes - with Maddison on target from the penalty spot - but it was too little, too late.
"In at half-time, I think it was 3-0 and you just give yourself too much to do - a mountain to climb from not being aggressive, not being at it, not being hungry enough to want to win the game," said Maddison. "To get yourselves out of trouble you need to do the basics well and be aggressive and fight. That's why we're down there, because we haven't been good enough."
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