Russell Martin on Leicester's 0-4 Defeat: Unacceptable, We Are Too Young and Fragile

Leicester City manager Russell Martin strongly criticized his team's performance after their 0-4 home defeat to Oxford United, saying the loss was "painful" and "unacceptable."

In this match, Leicester City suffered their heaviest defeat of the 2026/27 season so far at the King Power Stadium. Leicester have now lost two of their three League One home matches this season.

After the match, Russell Martin said: "It is painful, really painful. Today we looked completely different from the team we were before."

"Previously we were very united, very aggressive, and always ready to fight for each other. But for around 25 minutes in the second half today, our performance was unacceptable."

Speaking about the team's poor start, Martin said: "Our start was very bad because that goal we conceded was really poor. But after that we actually got back into the game, and I thought we completely controlled the first half at one stage."

"But the problem was the start. We did not compete enough, and too many times after challenges we failed to keep possession. We were really too soft."

Martin also highlighted serious problems during kick-off situations: "Today we had five centre-circle kick-offs in total, and three of them eventually turned into the opposition creating chances in front of our goal. That is crazy. I think it shows our lack of experience on the pitch and some problems with decision-making at times."

"After that we started chasing the score, but against a team that is very good at transitional attacks, we were caught out in those transitions again and again. I made several substitutions and took off some of the more experienced players, hoping to bring some energy into the game."

Finally, Martin concluded: "We have to learn from this. I think in the final stages of the game, this team was still too young and lacked experience. We played too naively and were too fragile."