It’s not a bad dream, this is all too real. Next season we’ll be grabbing three-minute highlights or quick goal round-ups on ITV’s Football League Show, where Leicester City’s matches will be lucky to be mentioned in the opening montage. Accompanied by a bad wind-jazz instrumental music arrangement, similar to that of a 1980s Sunday afternoon American Cop show (Krusty The Clown-esque sigh)! Anyway are the goalkeepers to blame for this nightmare of a season?
Kasper Schmeichel – 0 games
Four days before the opening game of the season, the captain and number one stopper of 11 years left the club to join Moneybags, OGC Nice. Whoever this decision was made for, it wasn’t done with Leicester City in mind. It is a microcosm of how poorly this season has been planned from start to finish. Given how much Schmeichel has enjoyed his time at the club it is remarkable that this would happen or that the club would allow it so openly.
In truth Schmeichel’s performances had been on the decline for a while and him leaving or having more of a challenge was the natural order. But not days before the start of the season, it was stupid from the club and smacked of a lack of control. Strangely despite not playing for Leicester all season, Schmeichel’s reputation soared particularly when his replacement stepped into the fray.
Danny Ward, 28 Leicester City games, 7 clean sheets
Given the £12.5million outlay on the Welsh international in 2018, and that he finally made his first Premier League start in 2022, it was only natural that Danny Ward would step up to the number one spot. It didn’t quite work out. Ward’s distribution and claims on crosses were okay (two of Kasper’s weaknesses) but crucially saving shots at key times was not something he excelled in. Dropping actual clangers wasn’t something he did too often, bar a calamity at Arsenal he wasn’t doing terribly.
But in one-on-one situations, it seemed to be all too easy for opponents to find space and pick their spot in the back of the net. Ward simply wasn’t closing down angles well enough and lacked the spacial awareness to command his area in the simple ways. The calls for him to be dropped were already starting as early as September when he followed up a 5-2 defeat to Brighton with a 6-2 loss at Tottenham. Every shot seemed to lead to a goal and Ward was looking less and less confident.
Bizarrely he followed that up with six clean sheets in his next eight games, where it seemed LCFC had turned the corner. It was a false dawn and those would be the last clean sheets he tasted in the Premier League as the club’s defence spiralled out of control downward after Christmas. The most naggingly obvious was the comfortable home defeat to a terrible Chelsea. Allowing a Ben Chilwell daisy cutter to trickle in at his near post was as annoying as being rooted to the spot as Kai Havertz lobbed an easy second goal over the hapless goalkeeper.
That was the last we saw of Danny Ward and his contribution to an embarrassing Foxes season. Overall he registered the lowest save percentage (63%) of any Leicester City goalkeeper in their nine Premier League seasons. It could be the last we ever see of him as a Leicester player.
Daniel Iversen
Following the Chelsea debacle, the 25-year-old Daniel Iversen was drafted into the side as a last throw of the dice from Brendan Rodgers. But like so much this season, it probably should have happened much earlier. Iversen seemed to make some very decent saves throughout his run. Keeping Everton at bay at the King Power Stadium. But he also presided over a disastrous 5-3 defeat at Fulham where he constantly seemed one step behind the play.
the Danish ‘GK’ commands his box well and seems to be a goalkeeper that has much promise following an impressive season at Preston North End in 21-22. He will probably be rewarded with a further run in the team in his return to the Championship, although he unfortunately, has the second-lowest save percentage for City in these nine seasons after Danny Ward. Perhaps the goalkeeping area was where it all went wrong after all.
Alex Smithies
What absolute genius decided to put Smithies on a £30,000 a week contract for two years? Just to prove what a basket case of a club Leicester City has become, Smithies won the fans player of the season. I fully expect John Rudkin to notice this as an endorsement and double his wages on an eight year contract. Some questions for the club:
- Why in such an embarrassing season would you do a Player of the Season?
- Why would you include players that haven’t even played?
- Do people working at the club have any knowledge or interest in football?
- Is stopping the squad apologising on social media the stupidest move ever?
- When will this nightmare be over?