Uncertainty
It’s been a tumultuous week for the Foxes. Defeat at Preston in what was generally regarded as a poor performance last Saturday was followed by days of transfer speculation surrounding a number of Leicester players together with a lack of incomings and the alleged lack of commitment to the club shown, most notably, by Harry Winks and Wout Faes.
All we knew for certain going into the Charlton match was that academy graduate Kasey McAteer is moving on to Championship rivals Ipswich Town (the seventh player from City’s squad from last season to depart). Doubts remain about the futures of Bilal El Khannouss - very much on Crystal Palace’s radar as a replacement for Arsenal-bound Eberechi Eze – James Justin, wanted by Leeds, Victor Kristensen – a target for Forest – and Abdul Fatawu – wanted apparently by Everton and Sunderland.
All of this was not ideal preparation for a difficult game against a side still in a post-promotion glow. The team selection reflected the state of the club with Winks and Faes on the bench, El Khannouss not in the squad and Justin and Stephy Mavididi out injured. Oliver Skipp came back into the midfield and youngsters Louis Page and Jeremy Monga made their first league starts.
One bit of quality
The Foxes generally struggled against a non-nonsense Charlton team who are hard working, physically effective, albeit essentially limited. It was a poor first half performance by Leicester who struggled to cope with the London team’s close marking. The away side created very little, the one attempt of note a shot ballooned over the bar by Louis Page when well-placed. Only a brilliant flying save by Jakub Stolarczyk kept the score level.
The second half followed a similar pattern with the home side peppering the Leicester box with a constant stream of high balls. Only two or three smart saves by man of the match Stolarczyk kept a clean sheet for the Foxes. The match was decided after 48 minutes with a brilliant curling shot by Fatawu after drifting in from the right wing. It followed the best Leicester move of the match, pretty much the only time that City played through Charlton’s high press.
It wasn’t pretty but a morale-boosting victory for the Foxes nevertheless. Something for the fans to hold on to.
Are Leicester fans angry enough?
Writing on the Fosse Way site, one Leicester fan bemoans the fact that Foxes’ fans aren’t angry enough about the present predicament of the club. This may be the case amongst the fan-base in general but amongst the hard-core fans who follow the Foxes home and away, I’m not sure it is true. Fans were pretty hostile after the defeat at Deepdale last Saturday leading Abdul Fatawu to implore them in a social media post after the game to stick with the players. At the Valley, despite the less than perfect performance of the away team, City never fell behind and eventually won. Not surprisingly, despite some familiar chants of Rudkin out early in the game, the fans stayed with the team.
Whilst the author is right to point to the catastrophic mistakes the club has made since winning the Premier League a decade ago (I’ve written about it myself), I don’t think, personally, it’s the absence of anger amongst Leicester fans that is the biggest danger. Apathy, it seems to me, is much more concerning. There is a distinct possibility that, if a promotion push doesn’t materialise this season, a proportion of the fan base will vote with their feet and no longer attend games. Crowds of little more than 20,000 at the King Power Stadium will be a miserable experience for all concerned with the club as will the drop in revenue that will result. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.