The context
Away defeats in the last two games have seriously upended Leicester’s promotion push. Against Hull, 2-0 down at half time, at least there was a semblance of a fight back in the second period which almost rescued a point. Against Millwall last Saturday, on the other hand, the Foxes capitulated with a whimper. As Jordan Blackwell noted, the toothless’ display was ‘the most concerning performance of the season’ with only one attempt on target – a tame header by Patson Daka – in the second half.
As a result, the Foxes took to the field against Blackburn Rovers with real questions being asked about their capacity to mount a credible promotion campaign and with Marti Cifuentes, according to at least one source, under serious pressure. As I wrote in my Millwall match report, a crisis at the King Power Stadium appeared to be brewing. In this environment, it is not surprising that the rumour mill is in overdrive with the, very unlikely – and undesirable – return of Brendan Rodgers to Leicester after his departure from Celtic, being mooted by some.
Another soul-destroying defeat
With Aaron Ramsey absent through injury, and Jake Evans joining Louis Page in the England under-17 set-up, options for the Leicester boss were limited. Cifuentes made four changes from the last game, bringing in Victor Kristensen for the hapless Luke Thomas, Stepjy Mavididi, Boubakary Soumare and Julian Carranza.
There was little in Leicester’s performance and result to suggest that talk of a crisis is premature. In the first half, the Foxes were marginally the better team (which is not saying much given their opponents were a poor Blackburn side) and had a goal chalked off for offside and a few speculative efforts. All in all though, there were far too many poor final passes and misdirected crosses. It was no great surprise when Andri Gudjohnsen put the visitors ahead on the 20-minute mark tapping into an open net after a calamitous error by Soumare.
The Foxes almost equalised after 53 minutes when Mavividi, close in on goal, somehow, not for the first time this season, failed to find the net when it looked easier to score. After that, with a disgruntled home crowd on the back of the players, Leicester created very little. Blackburn settled the match when Ryan Alebiosu was allowed to travel much too far and his cross was met by Gudjohnsen who bagged his second. Chronically lacking in confidence, City failed to lay a glove on Rovers for the rest of the match. That's now three successive defeats and one win in nine.
Will he survive the weekend?
When a team is failing, the usual victim is the manager and pressure is mounting on Marti Cifuentes. So far, the crowd have resisted calling for his head, although chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ followed one of his substitutions. The most vocal targets of the fan base continue to be the board, particularly Jon Rudkin, and the players, who were roundly booed off the pitch at the end.
To be fair to Cifuented, he has been dealt a poor hand with the club failing to adequately replace Jamie Vardy and Bilal El Khannouss in the summer. Make no mistake, though, failure to pick up points against Middlesborough and Norwich in the next two matches could spell the end for the Spaniard.