On Saturday against Watford at Vicarage Road, a venue where Leicester City took a huge step towards the Premier League title last term, they conceded after 34 seconds, setting a moribund early tone for a 2-1 loss. After that surrender, the Foxes sit just two points above the relegation zone.
On Tuesday the English champions booked their spot in the last-16 of the UEFA Champions League with a game to spare, beating Club Brugge 2-1. It’s a result that means they’ll potentially come up against some of European football’s grandest sporting institutions.
After a season of unbridled highs in 2015-16, this one has been one of wild oscillations for the Foxes. The Champions League has been an intoxicating sequel to their title win and the supporters will be delighted they’ve flung themselves fully into the competition. But it’s evidently come at a cost.
They’re 14th in the Premier League table after just one win in seven matches. On the road, Leicester have lost five and drawn one of their six matches, conceding 16 times in the process.
Despite some panic, manager Claudio Ranieri has called for calm.
“Against us today there was a big wall to stop all our shots on goal,” he said after the Watford loss. “I am very pleased with our performance. The spirit of the team is fantastic and I am proud of them. Of course we lost the match but the spirit is the same, high spirit.”
If spirits are high, they must at least be reaching a brittle point. While these players needed to show an extraordinary amount determination and composure to get over the line in the title race last term, footballers who are losing football matches will be downtrodden.
Now Ranieri needs to find a remedy for these results. The consensus has been that once their passage into the last-16 of the Champions League is secure, the Foxes can quickly slip back into the devastating gear that left the Premier League floundering in pursuit last term. However, some significant problems have emerged that’ll take time to rectify.
Clearly, the sale of N’Golo Kante has left an enormous vacuum in the middle of the team. The Frenchman’s absence has not only been to the detriment of former midfield partner Danny Drinkwater, but the centre-backs he expertly protected previously are exposed and the counter-attacking thrust the Foxes possessed last term has been diluted.
Additionally, it’s allowed opponents to focus squarely on the attacking threats posed by Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez; it’s no surprise to see both players struggling to replicate the same high standards of 2015-16 given the extra attention.
The style has had to be tweaked too. Kante, after all, epitomized everything positive about Leicester last term; they were aggressive, industrious, direct and decisive. This term, the Foxes have operated at a lower tempo that’s not married well with the more cautious tactics opponents have used to combat them domestically; the Champions League is a different story.
After winning against Brugge and securing top spot in their group, Ranieri can train the focus of his players on Premier League football, which will have its benefits both physically and tactically.
The upcoming fixtures are a little more favorable for the Foxes after what was an unforgiving start too; they’ll certainly feel confident of picking up positive results at home to Middlesbrough and then away to Sunderland.
But finding a formula that can compensate for Kante won’t be simple, nor will motivating a team that achieved the ultimate last season. Additionally, Leicester’s frailty from set-pieces, lack of defensive intensity and a newfound penchant for being slow out of the traps have all contributed to their deterioration in the league.
These are not woes that will be fixed quickly. They’ll require patience, meticulous attention to detail and potentially another transfer window.
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Of course, Leicester could be merely reverting to the norm in the Premier League this term. After all, many tipped them to be involved in a relegation scrap last season, so a mid-to-lower finish in 2016-17 would be deemed par in the eyes of plenty.
Regardless of how unhealthy their league position currently looks, their achievement in the Champions League is a startling one too, especially for debutants. There’ll also be an acceptance among the fanbase that Leicester should enjoy these halcyon days while they can and as such, it’ll be easy for many to shrug off the domestic woes.
But their title win has offered this club a unique chance to secure a foothold in the upper reaches of English football that few other teams from the swollen midtable of the Premier League will ever have. It’d be a huge shame if they were to fade back into the pack and Ranieri now faces a huge challenge to expedite a turnaround in fortunes.
