Leicester City lost 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City on Saturday evening. Here are three things FoL learned.
After not managing to pick up any points the Foxes remain in 19th on 25 points with just seven games to go in the battle for survival. Second place Man City were searching for their sixth consecutive win to close the gap with leaders Arsenal to just three points. Leicester were hoping to end their poor run of form under new manager Dean Smith, but against current Premier League champions it wouldn’t be an easy ride.
Leicester City’s new management
No one was expecting Leicester to beat Manchester City and it was a tough first game to come into for Dean Smith and his team. I think the trio were the right people for the job, it’s brilliant to see Craig Shakespeare back, hopefully John Terry can work up a miracle with our defence and I’m excited to see what Dean Smith can do.
After Saturday’s game, I left feeling impressed by the new management. First of all coming into a game against one of the best teams in football and having to introduce a new structure of play to the players, then having to change your defensive game plan because you’re 3-0 down.
As the game grew they also weren’t afraid to make tactical changes at half-time to shake-up the game. Leicester showed aggression and passion in the second-half and grew into the game, essentially ‘winning the second-half’. Their performance in that half was almost the light at the end of the tunnel and a beacon of hope for whats to come.
The return of Caglar Söyüncü
Finally, the Turkish centre-back made his first start since 29th October in the home fixture against Man City. It was brilliant to see Söyüncü back into the starting XI and he received a very warm welcome back from the fans. Obviously, Dean Smith and John Terry had seen something in Söyüncü that Brendan Rodgers couldn’t.
With reports coming out from the Athletic this week that Rodgers supposedly forced out key data analysts, it appears now more than ever that he allowed personal grievances to get in the way of playing a good defender.
Smith came out after the game to say “I’ve always been a fan of Cags I wanted to have a look at him in the first two training sessions to see how he did and I was really impressed.” Whereas Rodgers had always said his attitude wasn’t right in training. I thought he had a fantastic game on Saturday and hopefully we see him in a Leicester shirt more often in these last seven games.
Segregation line and tragedy chanting
I was sat almost right on the segregation line between the home and away fans and I was appalled to see the lack of separation between the two groups. The away faithful were only just over a metre away from Manchester City’s, with the only things separating them being strip of plastic fabric over one column of seats and several stewards.
I have no issue with a bit of ‘banter’ and back and forth between supporters, especially when Man City supporters were chanting ‘you’re going down’. That was funny and we embraced it by chanting back ‘we’re going down’. Although, most of the singing was just ‘banter’; as the game went on it became more heated and a few of the Citizens’ support went too far with offensive chants.
Some home fans were heard singing offensive chants about the 2018 Leicester helicopter crash, which led to Leicester City chairman Khun Vichai and four others losing their lives. A tragedy which shook the fan base and city – and still does to this day. Khun Vichai was an incredible man who did so much for our club and Leicestershire as a whole.
Tragedy chanting is something that has been going on for far too long, the most common example being in relation to the Hillsborough disaster, where 97 people tragically lost their lives. Tragedy chanting is wrong and something the Premier League are trying hard to stamp out of football. It’s disgusting to hear and it’s even more shocking when nothing is done about it.
After certain members of the MCFC faithful had finished their the disgusting chant, it obviously upset numerous Leicester fans who started to become angry and hurled abuse back towards home spectators and were subsequently then ejected from the stadium. The police on the segregation line didn’t appear to do anything about unacceptable chanting from home support.
When speaking to a LCFC steward after the game, I was told that they had made the authorities aware about what was sang. However, in response the officiator was told that the present police hadn’t heard anything. This is something that needs to be eradicated from football before it gets out of hand. It’s also a shame to hear it at a team like Manchester City, who are one of the best in European football.