Same old story
The Foxes went into Saturday afternoon’s game having won just one in seven matches. By contrast, Millwall had jumped into third position in the Championship after three straight wins. The big talking point for Leicester was whether the team would, at last, put in a full 90-minute performance. In almost half of the league matches this season, City have been frustratingly inconsistent, winning one half but losing the other. The consequence has been dropped points and the loss of a top six place.
What we got was another woeful performance from the Foxes in which the second half performance was only very marginally better than the first.
In the first, neither side offered much going forward. The only goal occurred just before the break when a long ball eluded Luke Thomas who got the wrong side of the Millwall forward and wasn’t strong enough to prevent a goal-bound shot.
In the second, Leicester started on the front foot but another mistake by Thomas, who was soon to be substituted, led to a penalty given away by Harry Winks. Only a terrific save by Jakub Stolarczyk kept the score down. From then on the Foxes huffed and puffed but never really looked like getting back into the game.
All in all, this was a dispiriting result and performance. There was a distinct lack of quality from the away side. A mid-table league position with a hefty points deduction likely to come is not a good look.
Words and actions need to be aligned
After another poor performance, and a stinging criticism of the team by Marti Cifuentes, surely now the Leicester boss must do what he has said he would do and blood some younger players. There is a feeling amongst the Foxes’ faithful, as Jordan Blackwell has pointed out, that, so far, his words and actions aren’t aligned. There is now a strong case for turning to youngsters such as Ben Nelson, Jake Evans, Louis Page and Bade Aluko. Given recent results, there isn’t much to lose
Is Cifuentes in trouble?
Another defeat, and only one win in eight games, is putting pressure on the Leicester boss. I, for one, was surprised at the appointment not least because, at least in English football, Cifuentes has no track record of getting teams promoted.
So far, the hard-core Foxes’ fans have generally remained supportive of the former QPR manager. There have been calls during the last couple of games for Cifuentes to ‘sort it out’ and hostility to the players was expressed at full time at the Den, but the most vocal criticism, as before, has been reserved for the club’s hierarchy and in particular Director of Football Jon Rudkin as well as some of the playing squad. This will change, though, if results and performances don’t improve, and quickly. What the club thinks about the manager’s position is anyone’s guess but ultimately they will be guided by the fans’ reaction.