Leicester City players failed to produce the "bare minimum" and "have got to take responsibility" for Saturday's heavy League One defeat by Oxford United, says captain Harry Souttar. The 4-0 home loss ranks as the club's worst league result in history, having never been beaten by such a margin when so far down the divisions. It raised doubts about the future of head coach Russell Martin, with the fan backlash instant and bitter, while former Foxes forward Matt Piper described it as a "sackable performance" during his post-match analysis on BBC Radio Leicester.
While Martin's approach to the game - his rigid instance on playing the possession heavy football which been branded as "passing teams to death" - has been heavily criticised, defender Souttar says the players will take the blame for Leicester's latest capitulation. "It doesn't matter what kind of football you want to play - if you don't compete in the game, if you don't win duels, you don't win tackles, you don't win headers, then you're not going to give yourself a chance in the game," he told BBC Radio Leicester. "I felt in the first half we played some OK stuff but we didn't compete, and obviously it got brought up at half-time, and again in the second half that cutting edge wasn't there, and that's solely down to the players.
"I think that's the bare minimum and we fell below that. We've got to take responsibility for that." 'That's a sackable performance' - what next for Martin at Leicester? Oxford Utd thump Leicester to heap pressure on Martin Foxes pain and Burnley suffer hangover - Aaron McLean's EFL takeaways Pre-match, post-match and topical Foxes content Subscribe and listen for everything you love about Leicester City Australia international Souttar has remained with the Foxes after back-to-back relegations despite intense interest in him from Championship clubs Sheffield United and Wrexham after he featured at the summer's World Cup.
He has stepped up as skipper in the new-look, youthful Foxes side under Martin, having been called upon just five times by Leicester in the past three seasons. Souttar's only two appearances for Leicester last season came after they were already relegated, having spent the preceding 16 months recovering from a knee injury that he suffered while on loan at Sheffield United a season earlier. And before that, he was barely called upon in the 2023-24 season by then Leicester manager Enzo Maresca who, like Martin now, placed a heavy emphasis on passing out of defence as part of the possession-obsessed approach that the club has committed to for a number of years.
Against Oxford, Souttar started in defence in front of veteran goalkeeper Alex McCarthy and alongside the experienced Luke Thomas, but the backline also included two novices in 20-year-old Jayden Joseph and Manchester City teenage loanee Christian McFarlane. The pair were two of five starting players that were under the age of 22 and who have been turned to by the Foxes hierarchy to get them out of the third tier at the first time of asking after a long list of high profile and highly paid players – including ex-England midfielder Harry Winks, Denmark defender Jannik Vestergaard and Ghana forward Jordan Ayew - were moved on in the summer. Souttar said the Foxes were "frustrated" by their shortcomings against Oxford, just days after Leicester earned their first league win of the season against Plymouth Argyle.
"In the Plymouth game midweek we looked really good and we felt we could kick on again. It didn't happen," Souttar said. "We'll be men about it, I know that it was far from good enough.
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