A fourth loss in five games and the pressure mounts on Claude Puel. Leicester City’s results don’t make for much happier reading in the medium term either. After a bright start to life under their new manager, it’s now just four wins in 19 games, or the equivalent of half a season. Whichever way you look at the situation, it doesn’t bode well.
Suggestions that the Leicester squad have downed tools and stopped playing for their manager have begun to circle once more. Club captain Wes Morgan has come out to deny the rumours but a worrying trend has been established. Claudio Ranieri and Craig Shakespeare were both left feeling that they didn't get the full backing from their players and Puel's fate now hangs in the balance too.
His arrival in October immediately helped to redress a poor start to the season. Leicester picked up 17 points from Puel’s first eight games in charge to pull clear of trouble at the bottom of the table. The polarised nature of the Premier League means that they’ve remained in the top half ever since, even with this prolonged downturn in form.
As well as specific concerns about the state of play at the King Power stadium, it speaks to a wider issue with the competitiveness of the division. After Burnley’s heavy defeat at the Emirates on Sunday, every side outside the big six now has a negative goal difference. From Arsenal upwards the figures are astonishingly positive. A two-tier top flight has been created, and the split between them is profound.
Significantly, Leicester were the last club to gatecrash this cartel, and they did so in the most spectacular way imaginable. The Foxes went from narrowly avoiding relegation to winning the title by a ten-point margin in the space of a single year. They raised the bar under Ranieri and forever redefined what it was possible for middling sides to achieve in the modern era.
Leicester’s exploits shifted the parameters in dramatic fashion. For better or worse, it made other clubs wonder why it couldn’t be them. With some impressive momentum and a sizeable helping of good fortune in the simultaneous underperformance of the Premier League’s traditional powerhouses, their unique combination of savvy recruitment, strong team spirit and a clear playing style carried Leicester to the very top.
In some ways they have become victims of their own success. Their title win was a glorious anomaly and the Foxes have had difficulty finding an even keel in the two seasons that have followed. Leicester have returned to a more natural level but their patchy form hints at underlying problems. When both Shakespeare and Puel came in there was a clear and immediate improvement in the club’s fortunes.
That hasn’t lasted, leading to suggestions that Leicester’s squad, emboldened by their title success, are hanging unpopular managers out to dry. The idea that they are deliberately failing to hit their previous heights in order to oust Puel is gaining significant traction. Some now feel a clear-out of powerful senior figures is needed in the summer to change the dressing room dynamic.
It’s an interesting theory, but one based on pure speculation. Although players who trust their manager, and have complete faith in his instructions, can be relied upon to perform with greater conviction and push themselves that bit further, the notion that Leicester’s current struggles are a calculated move on the part of head-strong players seems fanciful.
The reality is likely far more mundane. So many different factors, many of them intangible, influence a team’s performance and confidence in the Leicester camp will undoubtedly be low at the moment. Regardless, the whispers persist. They have two games remaining this season, starting against Arsenal tonight, which should be seen as a chance to put these rumours of player power to rest.
