It will be difficult for the East Midland’s outfit to attract top managerial talent if they find themselves in the same position or lower during the international break. Few head coaches would want to associate themselves with a team under such pressure from supporters, with so many players with little time on bloated contracts, and the necessity of promoting starlets.
Nevertheless, it is nice to sometimes fantasise about which managers Khun Top could look to bring in to build a project. Failure to gain promotion would almost certainly mean we start a longer rebuild project, including promotions from our youth team, and likely losing for free far too many talents.
The Return
Leicester need a head coach who has previously been successful with their young players, someone who they will - this time - get behind and give actual chance to get rid of the deadwood. A head coach who knows some of the players, who knows the hierarchy, and can start from day zero to start whipping these players into line. Our biggest issue is apparently motivation, we need someone who can get on that.
For me, the return of Brendan Rodgers would be an ideal situation. Having coached the Foxes during their strongest long term performance, built up the team into regular top of the table challengers, and created a system which suited Leicester City. The King Power side could do significantly worse than bringing back someone who is certainly good enough.
The only limitations we need to consider is the continued struggles with lethargy in this team, which were fixed under Enzo Maresca but immediately returned under Steve Cooper, with Ruud van Nistelrooy unable to recover the situation even with his ‘big name’. Rodgers struggled to recover from a similar situation with a similar crop of players, but having that experience already ought to give the Northern Irishman a good go at it this time around.
The Unrealistic
A new style, a new direction, another big name. Leicester failed when they brought in Ruud van Nistelrooy and gave the head coach no time, if they want to rebuild a new system and develop their exciting youth crop, I think Erik Ten Hag is a shout. The only issue is realism.
Currently in talks to possibly return to Ajax, Ten Hag is unlikely to be interested in the Foxes unless King Power offer him the control and time to develop the team which he lacked at Manchester United. To be fair, he also struggled with Bayer Leverkusen, but I would happily jot that down as a momentary lapse for an otherwise exciting style of play. After all, even a ‘tough’ time at Manchester United saw around 1.72 points per game and 1.67 non-penalty expected goals per 90 minutes. That is still better than all of our recent managers.
That is my demand for Khun Top. Should he wise to continue having an active role in shaping the future direction of the King Power Club, he must change course, bring us exciting football regardless of immediate pain, and actually give time to whoever they choose next. Cifuentes has struggled, I doubt he will get the time and transfer window to change it, if we had Erik Ten Hag, he needs that time.
The Possible
Perhaps more realistic is former Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick. This head coach is - though not particularly exciting - certainly more aware of Championship challenges and could offer the Foxes a cooler head as they struggle to perform as required. If we do a little bit of digging, we see Carrick is not a terrible pick.
Over his managerial stint, Carrick has around 1.5-1.7 points per game, usually averaging a clean sheets every three matches and between 1.23-1.4 non-penalty expected goals per 90. This places his teams average performances close to the Brendan Rodgers era at Leicester City: of course, Rodgers’ last season skews away from the gulf in performances there could have been.
Although Rodgers has the best points per game, Carrick comes in a close second where Cifuentes is beneath both but still better than Nistelrooy’s outcome. Arguably, the Spaniard is doing very poorly considering he has mostly lower Premier League players and some international talents in his roster while being in a lower division than Rodgers and Nistelrooy.
Carrick could offer a more reliable system in getting points, although less adaptable, and could help recover some of those lost clean sheets and lost points per game that we desperately need should the Foxes look to gain promotion this season. Additionally, with a season of promoting youth starts and offloading deadwood, he could help us achieve better results in the long run.