Russell Martin faces fierce criticism as reactions pour in after Leicester City defeat

It is not an exaggeration to claim that Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Oxford United was the worst in Leicester City’s 142-year history. Yes, there have been heavy home defeats before in this century. In 2001, for instance, the Foxes were beaten 6-0 by Leeds United in a League Cup tie and in 2017, Tottenham inflicted a 6-1 mauling on City in the Premier League. In League One, however, the previous heaviest home defeat was the 1-0 loss to Millwall in September 2008. That season, the club only lost three matches as they marched towards the league title.

Not surprisingly, the vultures have been circling since Saturday’s humiliation.

The fans

Judging by the response on X, not the most considered and nuanced arena, certainly, the Leicester boss will be lucky to still be in a job this time next week. Admittedly, many Rangers and Saints fans were piling in to reflect their frustration at Martin’s tenure at their clubs, but Foxes fans were equally critical, partly blaming the manager and partly blaming the people at the club who appointed him. 

A (very) few bucked the trend by imploring fans to give the manager more time. This was also the position of the Filbert Way website, one writer on the platform arguing that Leicester’s problem has been sacking managers too quickly and Martin should be given more time.

The media

Professional journalists tend to be a little more circumspect than die hard fans but even they have not spared their words when commenting on Saturday’s result and performance. 

Most have focused on the inflexibility of the Leicester boss, his unwillingness to change tack when the possession-based game isn’t working. Matt Piper on Radio Leicester’s coverage, for instance, pointed out that Leicester need a Plan B when Plan A isn’t working. Henry Winter, the former Chief football writer at the Times, was even more adamant on X. ‘Martin’s tactics’, he wrote, ‘possession, possession, possession, is simply sustained naivety’. The journalist writing for the Football365 site wondered why Russell Martin is still getting hired despite failing at his previous clubs.

The long-standing and respected FourFourTwo magazine took a longer-term perspective tracing the club’s decline over a number of years which it sees as a product of financial mismanagement and poor recruitment.

The manager

Martin’s comments after the game have also been the subject of criticism. He said that ‘I think the team is too young and too inexperienced at the end. We were naive and too soft.’

There was a kernel of truth in Martin's comments. Yes, it was bad form to apparently throw the young players under the bus. However, it is true that, particularly in midfield, they were no match for their tough and experienced opponents. A charitable view is that Martin was criticising himself for choosing to bring on more youth – Kamari Doyle, Tom Watson and Harry Howell – in the second half thereby giving the team an even more inexperienced character.

My judgment

The response to Leicester’s embarrassing defeat has been predictable. Unlike many fans, I would take a more balanced view, although I admit to being in a minority. In the first place, the club’s decline is long-term and can’t be explained by the inadequacies of the current manager.

In terms of the Oxford game, the defeat, or at least the scale of it, was not solely down to an unwillingness to dispense with a possession-based style of football. Yes, the build-up was too slow and lacking in intensity and never looked like breaking down a resolute away side. That doesn’t, however, explain why the Foxes conceded four goals. That was down to rank bad defending. It is difficult to legislate for defenders making such poor mistakes as all four of them did on Saturday.

The Stockport game on Saturday has become very important. I expect to see major changes at the back and in midfield. The result may well determine the future of the manager.

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