Everton 4-2 Leicester: Craig Shakespeare unhappy with Foxes defending from set plays

By Pete Hall

Sunday 9 April 2017 19:43, UK

Craig Shakespeare believes Leicester's poor defending at set pieces proved costly in the 4-2 defeat at Everton.

The Foxes fought back from a goal down to lead after 10 minutes thanks to goals from Islam Slimani and Marc Albrighton, but two from Romelu Lukaku and a Phil Jagielka header were enough to turn the match on its head an inflict Shakespeare's first defeat as Leicester manager.

Two of those Toffees goals came from corners, with the fourth, scored by Lukaku in the 57th minute, particular poorly defended by the visitors, much to Shakespeare's annoyance.

"Everton have a really good record here," Shakespeare told Sky Sports. "They work really hard to get between the lines, cause problems, get overloads in there, but none of that caused us the problems, it was defending the set plays.

"We need to be more aggressive in there. We need to make sure we get an arm across, stay with runners. Those things have been going our way of late, but today they didn't."

Shakespeare made five changes to the side that beat Sunderland in midweek, with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals looming, but he insisted the changes were not to blame for the defeat and the team are already looking forward.

"[The changes] didn't have any effect," Shakespeare added. "I have a strong squad, and believe in all of them. When they are given their opportunity we expect them to deliver.

"We came here to get a win. I don't think there is much damage [mentally to players]. We will assess them in the next few days.

"I have never worked with a group of players like this, in terms of their winning mentality and their training. It wasn't quite there today, we didn't have that bit of luck that we have had in the past.