Conservative approach fails to pay off
In retrospect, it was, perhaps, a good time to play Middlesborough. Despite being second in the table, the North East club haven’t been in the best form recently, winning only twice and losing two of their last seven games. Their 3-0 away defeat to Watford was a low point that the Foxes needed to capitalise on. Added to that is the uncertainty over the future of boss Rob Edwards, who is being heavily linked with the Wolves job.
For a long time, it looked like the Foxes would record only their fourth win of the season. Just before half time, a penalty awarded for handball was despatched by Jordan Ayew. In the second half, it was clear City were intent on grinding out a 1-0 victory defending deep to repel Middlesborough. Then, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Luke Thomas failed to cut out a cross which found Luke Ayling in acres of space in the six-yard box. He made no mistake. There were warning signs in the second half that Middlesborough could get back into the game. Only a smart save by Asmir Begovic, on at half time for the injured Jakub Stolarczk, preserved Leicester’s lead.
Overall, Leicester’s approach was ultra-cautious. In the second half, in particular, the defence was too deep inviting Middlesborough on. The home side created nothing going forward in the second half. Whether this was on the orders of the boss or merely reflected a team chronically lacking in confidence is difficult to say. Whatever the reason, it didn’t work. That’s now one win in ten games and the vultures are beginning to circle.
Will Cifuentes be sacked?
Avoiding defeat against Middlesborough reduces the pressure on the Leicester boss but he is not out of the woods yet. Managers of struggling clubs rarely survive. Just this past week, Wolves, the Premier League’s bottom club, sacked Vitor Pereira and Southampton, even closer to the bottom of the Championship than the Foxes, dispensed with the services of Will Still. Another defeat against lowly Norwich on Saturday, or even a failure to pick up maximum points, may still mark the end for Cifuentes, particularly as the international break gives the club two weeks to find a replacement. He may, though, be saved by the Foxes’ reluctance to part with the money required to compensate an outgoing manager and his coaching staff.
Should Cifuentes be sacked?
It is usually the manager who carries the can for his team’s failures. Most knowledgeable football fans recognise this is not always a just outcome. Both Pereira and Still, for instance, were faced with managing clubs who had sold their best players without adequately replacing them
Is the Leicester boss unjustly under pressure? In my view, the answer is partly no. The Foxes still have a squad full of quality players, at least relative to many other clubs in the Championship. There is no doubt that Cifuentes has failed, so far, to get the best out of them.
I watched Sunderland play Everton on Monday evening and it struck me how the newly promoted sides style of play – high intensity, aggressive, pressing from the front – is a world away from the slow, low intensity and passive displays of Leicester City. This is surely, at least partly, down to the manager, although the players must also accept their share of the blame.
On the other hand, though, the club’s hierarchy hasn’t helped by failing to adequately replace the creative heartbeat of the team after Bilal El Khannouss, Jamie Vardy and Wilfred Ndidi left in the summer and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was sold the season before. Cifuentes also had precious little time to prepare his squad for a gruelling Championship season due to the club’s decision, presumably due to financial considerations, to wait an age before removing Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
The Catalan has been unlucky with the suspension, and then injury, to on-loan Aaron Ramsey who looks the most likely to offer goals and assists. However, the fact that the three central strikers have only managed two league goal between them this season (both to Ayew) tells you everything you need to know. Consider these two facts emphasised by Sky Sports. First, centre back Jannik Vestergaard has netted as many goals as all three central strikers combined. Second, Jordan Ayew, who inherited Vardy’s iconic number nine jersey, has never, in a long career, hit double figures in an English league campaign.
Along with many others, I have bemoaned the catastrophic mistakes made by the club’s hierarchy over the past few years and, to their credit, the Foxes’ faithful have been noticeably unwilling to openly criticise the manager so far. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that big changes are required at the top of the club. The Chief Executive, Susan Whelan, has gone and surely there is a case for Jon Rudkin, the Director of Football, to follow suit. You have to admire, if that’s the right word, the audacity of a man who has stayed in post despite being abused by Leicester fans for season after season.