Avoiding ridicule
There was a hope prior to the Boxing Day fixture that Leicester City would avoid adding to the 111 ridiculous things that have happened to the club in 2025 listed by the Fosse Way web site. To be fair, things would have to be very bad on Friday afternoon to be added to this list which includes things such as ‘Jannik Vestergaard bringing his dog to the training ground’, tying to buy a player from the Foxes’ feeder club ‘and Jon Rudkin couldn’t agree a fee with himself’, ‘Patson Daka going almost an entire calendar year without scoring and still being the best striker at the club’ and, my favourite, the club doing a goal of the month competition for February even though the team failed to score a league goal for the entire month.
It would have been a surprise indeed had the game against Watford added to the list. For one thing, Javi Gracia’s side have been as inconsistent as Leicester this season failing to win consecutive games and going into the game sitting in tenth place, only one point above the Foxes. They have the worst away record in the Championship and are slow starters too, conceding the first goal in 16 of their 22 matches, so there was little prospect of City falling three goals behind early on, as they have done seven times since last December. For another thing, Watford had only beaten City once in the last 14 meetings between the two clubs.
On the other hand, as reported on this site, since the 2010-11 season, Leicester have won only two Boxing Day fixtures, the last one of these being the stunning defeat of Manchester City in 2018. Since 2021, they have lost three and drawn one, shipping 14 goals in the process. And, of course, this really has been a ridiculous 12 months for the Foxes so it would be foolish to discount another setback.
112th
Defeat to Watford continues this miserable Boxing Day record. Losing at home to the side with the worst away record is probably worth a place in the most ridiculous things to happen to Leicester City this year. The mid-table affair was short of quality. The game was littered with errors from both sides. In the first half, the Foxes were the better team. They took the lead through Jordan James in their first meaningful attack after eight minutes and could have had a second when a howler from Egil Selvik in the Watford goal presented a chance to Stephy Mavididi which he didn’t take. A Caleb Okoli mistake just before the interval resulted in an undeserved Watford equaliser.
The second half was a different matter representing one of Leicester’s worst performances of the season, and there have been a lot to choose from. Bereft of confidence and passion, and failing to do the basics right, the Foxes fell behind to an unchallenged Mattie Pollock header on the hour mark. They rarely threatened to get back into the game and could have conceded more.
A suggestion
The latest defeat, the eighth in 23 matches this season, may well mark Marti Cifuentes’ last game as Leicester boss. Losing to Derby, or even failing to beat them, in next Monday’s game will almost certainly provoke a change. His team do not look like they expect to win games and the errors players are making suggests that they have ceased believing in the manager.
There is a paucity of quality replacements available right now and so I have a suggestion. Offer a caretaker role to Martin O’Neill until the end of the season. It seems a win-win to me. No one will expect the former Leicester boss to challenge for promotion given the club’s position and it would be a popular appointment amongst the fans. What is more, it would give the club the chance to think ahead to making a long-term appointment in the summer. Whether the Irishman wants the job and whether the club are sensible enough to consider offering it to him is not, of course, guaranteed.