Leicester City must keep hold of Claude Puel

It is obvious to say that Claude Puel has not been a roaring success so far – a big chunk of Leicester City fans won’t be too sad if he was given his marching orders. Coupled with an indifferent season when he was in charge of Southampton – it would seem English fans haven’t warmed to him. After a fantastic start when Puel took over at the Foxes, the second half of the season turned into what the Saints fans refer to as the ‘Puel effect’. However, I believe Leicester should stick with him and in this article I will explain why.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty part of why the Foxes should stick with him, the negatives behind the perceived ‘Puel effect’ may have some substance and after all I am not so naive to think everything is rosy but that old saying ‘Rome wasn’t built-in a day’ springs to mind when I see what the Frenchman is trying to achieve at the King Power stadium, coupled with raised expectations from the Leicester fans it is a high pressured job.

So let’s take a look at what has been happening. Every man and his dog know that Leicester in full force are a great counter attacking team – this was the key aspect to Leicesters title-winning season.

However, with loss of N’Golo Kante to Chelsea after the 2015/16 season sapped a huge part of the game plan that Claudio Ranieri had created – Kante’s ability to read the game and make vital interceptions, tackles and then break forward with a simple lay off or driving runs forward was so key to the way Leicester played that season. To this day this have not been able to replace that aspect of play.

There is an argument to be had with Wilfred N’Didi replacing the interception and tackling part of Kante’s game, but the other side of it is where N’Didi needs to improve.

Without that exact same ability to break forward in that same fashion has re-emphasised that Leicester need to add more strings to their bow as teams had worked out how to play against them and nullified a big part of that counter attacking threat.

Must Read: 5 steps Foxes must take to not be the next Southampton

Ranieiri could not find a way to do so, which resulted in a loss of form, faith and patience leaving Leicester in the relegation zone. He subsequently lost his job with his assistant manager Craig Shakespeare taking his place. Unfortunately, Shakespeare hadn’t read the script and tried to revert to old and looked out of depth. Leicester City lacked creativity and turned into the long ball to Jamie Vardy show.