Leicester Defender Insists Riyad Mahrez Saga 'Wasn't a Factor' in Heavy Defeat to Man City

Leicester defender Harry Maguire has dismissed suggestions that the transfer saga surrounding Riyad Mahrez impacted upon his side's performance at Manchester City on Saturday.

The Algerian winger was introduced in the second-half of the Foxes' heavy 5-1 defeat and attracted much of the attention in the buildup to the game.

But Maguire has insisted that the Mahrez situation was no excuse for the inadequate performance of he and his teammates.

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“No, it wasn’t a factor at all,” Maguire told the Leicester Mercury. “We prepared properly, we knew what we had to do. To come here we knew we had to play the perfect match.

"We gave the ball away cheaply a lot. We were a bit too open in defence and there were too many gaps between us, especially in the second-half.

“Perhaps when it was 3-1 we needed to consolidate and say we don’t concede any more goals. If we go and score, then it is a bonus and we can go and put pressure on them, but we were a bit too open. But we will learn from it and we have plenty of big games to come.”

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Manager Claude Puel received criticism for changing his system after Jamie Vardy had equalised, but Maguire placed the blame with individual mistakes.

“It is something we haven’t played a lot,” he said of the three at the back system which Leicester started with. “We worked on it all week in training but it is tough when you come to places like this and they seem to have players all over the pitch, picking the ball up and putting in numerous crosses.

“They were outnumbering us out wide and he thought it was something we had to do but, to be honest, it doesn’t really matter what system you play when you make as many mistakes as we did. We still wouldn’t win the game.

“We made a couple of individual errors and if you make errors against a team as good as Manchester City they will capitalise."