Talking points from Leicester City’s 1-0 defeat to Swansea, looking at the fight in the squad, the embarrassing goal they conceded, how Rowett fits with the squad, and more
Jordan Blackwell
13:02, 12 Apr 2026
Gary Rowett during Leicester City’s 1-0 defeat to Swansea(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
“We have to start fighting like it really matters,” Gary Rowett said as he weighed up Leicester City’s fate.
What have they been doing up to now, then? Fans have been told all season, by different managers and coaches, as well as the players themselves, that this is a group that cares about City’s plight.
But now Rowett suggests there’s more they could have been giving. For fans, it’s always really mattered and one of the reasons they are so angry is that they’ve not seen that reflected in performances.
If a team has not fought like it really mattered for 42 games, it feels like turning it on for the final four matches will be beyond them.
They’ve had a run of games against sides with nothing to fight for and have fallen short. Now they face four clubs with something on the line, whether it’s a Premier League dream or their Championship future, and there will be limited belief among supporters that City can outbattle those opponents.
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For a second, let’s give Rowett the benefit of the doubt and say that the quote was a slip of the tongue. Maybe it was an attempt to say the right thing and, in fact, he does believe, as he said before Saturday, that this is the team that has been fighting as much as they can.
In that case, they look mentally defeated. Against Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, the results weren’t good enough but there was an element of fight and belief in the number of chances they created in response to going behind.
Against Swansea, they had 35 minutes to muster a comeback but barely troubled the visitors. In all that time, they fashioned one good opportunity, Jamaal Lascelles’ header past the post.
Despite it being a frequent occurrence this season, they looked shellshocked to go behind. They were crestfallen, when what they need to be is energised.
So either they’re not fighting enough or their spirit has been drained to the point of accepting their fate. Neither leads to survival.
Where it went wrong for embarrassing goal
The defining moment of the match was an embarrassing one for City. Within seconds, they turned a dangerous attacking free-kick into a goal conceded.
It was clearly poor execution by Divine Mukasa to try to tee up Harry Winks, but also the wrong idea. Winks has had so many shots from the edge of the box in recent matches but in trying to fire through the bodies, none have paid off. And yet City deemed it the best plan to try it again in that scenario.
More than that, it wasn’t a set routine. It wasn’t part of the gameplan. Rowett said the players took the matter into their own hands in that moment.
“It’s never on for a quick one to the edge of the box,” he said. “You have to just put the ball in the box. We have to go back to basics.
“The players sensed it was on and they decided it. I’m not trying to blame them, but it just wasn’t that moment.”
Then comes Eom Ji-sung’s 70-yard run from one box to the other. City were not capable of stopping legally or illegally.
Luke Thomas had a nibble at his heels but did not do enough to bring him down. Ricardo Pereira was breezed past by the South Korean. In Rowett’s eyes, City weren’t cynical enough, but perhaps don’t have the capacity to be so anyway.
“That’s where you have to make a foul,” Rowett said. “We’re not a particularly cynical team and maybe that’s why we haven’t kept as many clean sheets as we can. Sometimes you have to find a way to make sure the opposition don’t score.”
Zan Vipotnik of Swansea City clears a shot off the line from Oliver Skipp of Leicester City
But even beyond the poor decision-making and execution at the free-kick, and failures to stop the dribbler, there’s a structural problem.
Throughout the first half, Swansea were always looking for the fast breaks from City free-kicks and corners. They didn’t lead to chances as good as Zan Vipotnik’s but they did lead to yellow cards and mad dashes from Jakub Stolarczyk to mop up.
It was clearly a tactic on Swansea’s part. They had recognised a weakness in City’s game, one that has been present all season.
It’s not just that City haven’t improved at defending transitions all season, it’s that there seemed to be no recognition from the players or the coaching staff that this was part of Swansea’s plan.
An attacking set-piece is a chance to get players in the box, but there has to be an understanding that it could lead to a counter for the opposition. With just Ricardo back, City were not set up to deal with that eventuality.
Mukasa will be the focus of the goal, and it was a weak pass, but this was a mess all around.
Rowett comment point to fatal mismatch
That City attempted to play the free-kick short when Rowett wanted it tossed into the box points towards another problem: there may be a mismatch between the squad and the manager.
It was the one doubt when Rowett was appointed, that his way of playing was not compatible with the squad he was taking over. But it felt like his ability to get teams performing quickly overshadowed that doubt.
However, maybe it’s been a bigger hurdle to overcome than first anticipated. It’s been brought up frequently by the manager that City want to score the perfect goal, and that netting a “dirtier” one can be beyond them.
He’s also spoken often about the lack of a big striker to aim towards, and he’s discussed that this is a squad that has been built to challenge at the other end of the table, and perhaps doesn’t have some of the physical attributes required for the situation they’re in.
Rowett has compromised. He has played a possession game because that’s what the squad are more suited to. But it’s not paying off.
After Saturday’s game, Rowett said: “The biggest challenge I’ve found is that it’s really difficult to play any other way. There will be teams down there that can be more direct, that can press with full energy early on in the game.
“We don’t have the ability to score scruffy goals. I don’t know how many times I’ve said it. We have to keep playing and playing and playing and we were trying to do that around our own box and everyone’s getting frustrated, including myself.
Abdul Fatawu of Leicester City is tackled by Josh Tymon of Swansea City
“They’re just a different profile of player and sometimes we have to play the perfect game. That’s been the biggest challenge.”
While the results have not been there, there have been matches, especially the three before Saturday, where there were improvements in the number of opportunities City created and the number they restricted the opposition to.
But it’s clearly not a perfect fit, and the more results that don’t go City’s way, and the more Rowett speaks, the more it seems that it was not the right managerial appointment.
Chairman targeted as anger grows
It’s not that it’s been a rarity this season, but the post-match anger did seem to reach new heights after Saturday’s defeat.
There was more vitriol in the chants and boos towards the players as they did their lap of the pitch. Fans were more vociferous in targeting chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddahanaprabha for his absence from the King Power Stadium.
While the chairman’s love for the club has seemed sincere, and he says that if he’s not present, he’ll be watching the game from Thailand, but it doesn’t give a great impression when there’s a bank of empty seats in the director’s box.
In those moments, it feels like the club is rudderless. It feels like the chairman isn’t fronting up to the responsibility he has. Does that permeate through the club?
So who can blame supporters for their anger? They’ve witnessed one of the steepest fall-offs in recent English football history and are now staring down the barrel of their worst ever season, a humiliating second successive relegation and a total underperformance from one of most expensively-assembled and highest-paid squads in the division.
If there’s any time for that level of anger to be on show in the stands, it is now.
Sliver of hope in nervy final four
But, it’s not over yet. It’s bleak, but where there’s a chance, there’s room for hope, even if it’s the tiniest sliver.
City probably need to win three of their final four matches to stay up, including next weekend against Portsmouth.
Having taken just six points from six games against sides with nothing to play for, there will be few that envisage nine points being earned from four matches with everything on the line.
But maybe pressure fixtures are what City need. Maybe their opponents will succumb to nerves too.
Portsmouth’s win at Middlesbrough was their first in nine matches. Hull and Millwall, despite chasing promotion, have each only won of their last five. Maybe there is still a chance.
It’s now up to this squad to prove wrong what many think about them, to hold their nerve in the pressure matches, and somehow escape this mess.
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