'That is not professional': Leicester City's 'underachieving' players criticised ahead of Portsmouth game at Fratton Park
Leicester City’s player are showing a lack of fight, grit and determination to win their battle against Championship relegation - according to one former Foxes player
Leicester City have been slammed ahead of their huge game against Pompey at Fratton Park on Saturday - by an ex-Foxes player.
Matt Piper, who came through the youth ranks at the club before making 16 senior appearances for the relegation-threatened side, believes a lack of fight and pride in wearing the shirt is missing from Gary Rowett’s team going into their final four games of the season.
And the former winger, who now acts as a pundit for BBC Radio Leciester, cannot work out why that is the case given the perilous situation the 2016 Premier League champions find themselves in.
Leicester in a perilous position heading to Fratton Park
Leicester head to Fratton Park for their lunch-time kick-off sitting second from bottom in the Championship table and five points from safety.
Nineteenth-placed Pompey extended their advantage over the Foxes to seven points following their 2-0 win over automatic-promotion-chasers Ipswich Town on Tuesday night and would go a long way to securing their own second-tier status if they can inflict an 18th league defeat of the season on the King Power Stadium outfit.
The two teams drew 1-1 the last time they met on October 18, with a brilliant John Swift goal earning John Mousinho’s side a share of the spoils
Back then, Leicester sat fourth in the table and four points above the Blues after 10 games played.
Fast forward to the present day, though, and the Foxes find themselves in real danger of a return to the third tier of English football for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
A six-point deducation for breaching profit and sustainability rules, the sacking of pervious boss Marti Cifuentes, and an alarming drop of form that has seen them collect just one win in 16 games and two Championship victories in 2026 have all contributed to their downfall.
However, Piper believes another major factor is at play - the players’ attitude and their failure to give more while wearing the shirt.
Piper: That is not professional
According to Piper, the Foxes would give the fans hope if Rowett’s side showed the spirit that fellow strugglers Pompey and Oxford have displayed in recent weeks.
Yet, their response to going a goal down in their defeat to Swansea last time out had alarm bells ringing, with the former Sunderland foward claiming the players simply gave up.
‘Of course we could get out of it mathematically, but I'm looking at two or three teams around us, Oxford and Portsmouth, and they are showing what you were hoping would come from the Leicester City players,’ Piper told BBC Radio Leicester.
‘They are showing fight and a bit of grit, determination and desire to wear that shirt with pride and keep their football club in the league.
‘And I don't think we are seeing that from Leicester players.
‘I felt really sorry for the kids that watched that (game against Swansea) and think that is normal. You get a goal scored against you or something goes against you in a game and you just give up.
‘That is not professional sport and that is not how those players got to that level, and that is why I can't understand that they don't give more.’
Leicester ‘have some really talented players’
According to transfermarkt.com, the current Leicester squad cost €186m (£162m approximately) to put together, which is the the biggest in the Championship and a figure that dwarfs Pompey’s squad cost of €7.59m (£6.9m approx).
To add insult to injury, more than two thirds of the present Foxes squad have operated at Premier League level.
Piper added that makes their fight against relegation even more difficult to fathom, but highlights their lack of fight.
He said: ‘Leicester have had some shocking teams over the years and some really poor players - and I've been part of those squads so I'm not excusing myself - but what I will say is that even when we were really poor, you still had players that pulled on the shirt and gave it everything.
‘The thing that highlights things most with this group is that there are some really talented players.
‘We have been massively underachieving with the group of players we have and it would be a disaster of a season even without the six-point deduction.’