With the run-in approaching, 2015/16 title winners Leicester City must arrest a poor run of results to avoid being dragged into the Premier League’s bottom three.

We caught up with Jordan Blackwell, Leicester City correspondent for Leicestershire Live, to get his thoughts ahead of Saturday’s game at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Leicester City are 16th in the Premier League after a pretty testing season. How would you summarise the way it has panned out so far?

It’s been a really disappointing campaign. The expectation, coming into the season, was that they would challenge for European football.

They had a difficult summer transfer window. They only brought in one player, which was after they sold Wesley Fofana to Chelsea, but even then, the expectation was that they would be comfortably mid-table. That is not how it has panned out.

They had a very difficult start and have gone through decent patches, but also patches of really poor form and that is why they are in a relegation battle with 12 matches to go.

I don’t think Leicester can get away from the fact they are right in it and one of the candidates to be relegated, so they really need to start picking up points quickly.

The relegation battle does seem to be opening up. With Leicester having lost eight of their last 11 Premier League games, what’s the mood like in the camp at the moment?

It depends on who you ask. With the fans, the mood is really poor - to them, it feels as though they are watching a team sleepwalking towards relegation. They are not seeing the fight they want to see in performances, and they don’t think the players understand they are in a relegation battle.

In the squad and with the manager, the mood is a little bit more positive. They feel that, with the quality of the performances they are putting in, they will get enough points to survive.

Over the past few weeks, against Chelsea and Southampton, they did create enough chances in both of those games to get points, which is not something that is often the case with Leicester as their finishing is usually pretty good, but it has let them down over the past couple of weeks.

There are lots of teams in the battle and Leicester do have to play a lot of them after the international break so, hopefully, that’s where they can really pick up points.

How much pressure is Brendan Rodgers under?

He’s always retained the faith of the owner, so I think, internally, there won’t be much pressure because there’s an appreciation from the ownership that they didn’t give him the best of hands in the summer, with not being able to strengthen the squad at the time when it felt like they were at the end of a cycle and needed to freshen things up.

The squad is still behind him, but again, there’s pressure from the fans, some of whom chanted for him to be sacked during the defeat to Chelsea last weekend. It’s something we’ve heard in fits and starts over the course of the season, but probably the first time we’ve heard it at a home game.

Which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on?

There is only one answer to this question: James Maddison.

It was after the game at Brentford last season that Maddison’s form really started to pick up again. He scored his first goal in some time that day and, since then, he has been terrific.

The way he carries the ball, the way he moves his body to create space for himself, his touch and his vision means he is so influential for Leicester.

He can be shut down, though, and that’s the key thing. We saw against Chelsea how, in the first half, he was really good, finding the space between the lines and at the heart of everything for Leicester. However, at half-time, Graham Potter made a change and brought Conor Gallagher on for Joao Felix and he slotted into the position where Maddison was, so his influence waned.

It’s not like there were any other threats that Chelsea needed to keep close tabs on, so they could focus their attention on Maddison.

How is Rodgers likely to set up on Saturday?

Against Chelsea he moved to a back three for the first time in a long time, but I think that was because Harvey Barnes was not fit enough to play the whole game; now he is, I think Rodgers will probably revert to a 4-3-3.

Danny Ward will be in goal, Ricardo Pereira and Timothy Castagne at full-back, Harry Souttar and Johnny Evans will be at centre-back, with the latter likely to make his first Premier League start in five months.

The midfield will be Nampalys Mendy, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Maddison, then Tete on the right, Barnes on the left and Kelechi Iheanacho up front.

The teams drew 2-2 on the opening weekend of the season. What’s your score prediction this time around?

I can’t see anything other than a Brentford win, given their long unbeaten run at home in the league and given the way Leicester are playing and the mood around the club.

I think it will be close, though, so I’ll say 2-1 Brentford.