Kasper Schmeichel’s injury may be a blessing in disguise for Leicester

With some vital games coming up and a manager reluctant to drop an underperforming captain, Kasper Schmeichel’s injury may be a blessing in disguise for Leicester City.

Schmeichel is not enjoying his most impressive campaign for Leicester – at all! In fact, the Danish international’s play has been fairly unsatisfactory this campaign, barring a few decent saves here and there.

The rather antiquated aspects of the 35-year-old’s game – an unwillingness to come out and claim the ball or gather crosses, parrying into a dangerous area, and the worst of all: distribution by foot – are prevalent in the disappointing 2021/22 campaign.

Some supporters and experts have begun to believe that certain of the issues have even intensified. Many are also calling out the current Foxes skipper for supposedly commanding ‘his box’ by berating his defenders individually. In essence this positive ‘attribute’ of Schmeichel’s is actually a mirage: goalkeepers who do run a successful remit are able to catch a corner and lead by example. Unfortunately he does neither at present.

Look, I’m fed up with reiterating this piece of obviousness every time Foxes of Leicester critiques a legitimate club legend, but here goes again. Yes, Schmeichel is up there with LCFC icons such as Jamie Vardy, Wes Morgan and Marc Albrighton, although everything in life comes to an end. That definitely applies to sport, elite sport.

This term the east Midlands team have conceded the fourth most goals in the Premier League overall. To put that into perspective, that’s more let in than Brentford, Everton and Burnley. Evidently, those finishes were not all down to Schmeichel’s contemporary inadequacy, but he’s not helped the situation much. If he had the confidence to attempt to disrupt corners, even if he can’t catch them, there is a chance he would have kept a clean sheet or two recently.

Though I am not advocating for the former Leeds United stopper to be retired or replaced at King Power Stadium, quite yet, the important Napoli contest now might be the best occasion for understudy Danny Ward to be given an opportunity as No.1. There may be no choice in that decision as Schmeichel insists Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey injured his thumb in the disheartening 2-1 defeat:

"“He’s absolutely whacked my hand and my thumb is numb at the moment. We’re going to see if I need an x-ray.”Via Sky Sports"