The manager has described the trip to Fratton Park as a must win, with City now four points from safety in the Championship standings with just four games to play
Gary Rowett on the touchline during Leicester City’s 1-0 defeat to Swansea(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Gary Rowett will trade polish for toughness at Portsmouth as Leicester City head into a must-win game.
With City now four points from safety, Rowett has said he cannot envisage survival unless his side take three points from Fratton Park.
But victories have been few and far between, with just one win earned in Rowett’s 10 games in charge.
Something needs to change and Rowett has suggested he will prioritise “toughness”, even if that makes City less appealing on the eye, in order to avoid moments like Zan Vipotnik’s winning goal for Swansea on Saturday.
“It’s easy to say they don’t care, they do care,” Rowett said following the 1-0 defeat. “They’re just a different profile of player.
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“Sometimes it feels like we have to play the perfect game. That’s been the biggest challenge.
“Maybe that extra toughness in certain areas, I’m going to have to look at one or two players that might give us that, where we might not look as polished in some moments of the game but actually deal with other moments of the game better.
“That’s for me to find a balance. I’m the manager. I’ve not been in here an awful long time but I’d expect to get more results, so I can take responsibility for that.
“But it’s quite difficult to win games of football when you make elementary mistakes, so that’s something we need to make sure we avoid.”
Rowett also suggested he may consider a change in formation, although may hold off on that until City are back at home, against Hull next Tuesday.
Under Rowett, City are unbeaten on the road, drawing all five games, while they’ve won one, drawn one and lost three at the King Power Stadium.
Rowett said: “We know where we are in the season and we know what we’ve got to do. The message has been rammed home all week, loud and clear.
“Certainly at home I’m going to have to look at a different team, maybe a different formation.
“It’s a massively important week, we’re running out of time and running out of matches, and we can’t afford to not be performing.”
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