Again, as with Mavididi, I hope the ex-Manchester City man is ok. I hate having to do this because of the ridiculous expectation this team has set with their incredible start to the season. Most fan bases wouldn’t freak out over a loss here but we are different. This team didn’t deserve relegation and every single Leicester fan knows that. We were mismanaged into relegation despite having an incredible squad of players. When we start to see things creeping into our side that even remotely mimic what led us to be in the second division this time around, we need to call it out.
I’ll end with this: I believe this is now on the manager. This should be proof that now the genius of Enzo Maresca has been dissected by these Championship managers and people now have a solid blueprint on how to beat us. If I were more tactically astute I would attempt to dissect it, but you can see teams have figured out how to both press us effectively and in addition defend resolutely against us.
This is where Maresca will earn his stripes as a manager. He will have two weeks to sort this out and get these players to a place where they can adjust on the field to what their opponents are doing to choke our attacks. In addition, there needs to be something we can do to score at the end of a game when losing. Today when the clock was running down I started writing in the 82nd minute that Leicester never looked like they would score, and I was sadly proven correct.
Fans have a lovely two weeks now to sit and stew over this loss. I hope the players, the ones who don’t travel to their national sides, will do the same. Sit and stew over this loss, internalize it and use it as motivation to not allow this anymore this season. They all need to find another level if Leicester City Football Club hope to achieve automatic promotion this season. Until next time, Foxes never quit!