So Can Leicester City Do It All Over Again?
Remember how nobody believed that Leicester City could win the Premier League last season even after they shot out to a big start? How it was only a matter of time until they fell back into the pack and faded? But they won it anyway? Yeah, so with that in mind, maybe we should be taking more notice as the pundits once again predict the Foxes to settle back down the table.
That Premier League championship doesn’t only rank as the most incredible and unlikely title of our times but it blows any possible challengers out of the water. Football is supposed to be simple. Simpler still these days when the biggest clubs have so much more resource and overcoming that is meant to be impossible. And yet Leicester did it.
Leicester City’s title defence begins next week with a trip to promoted Hull City that’ll open the Premier League season. Their wider campaign began this weekend though as they went down 2-1 to Manchester United in the Community Shield, a campaign that for the first time in the club’s history will also include Champions League football. Their pre-season saw them running around with Paris Saint Germain and Barcelona – this from a team that was in the third tier only eight years ago, now footing it with the best clubs in Europe.
Well, ‘footing it’ would be a loose term here, since they were beaten 4-0 by PSG and 4-2 by Barca, though pre-season results tend not to mean bugger all of anything what with endless subs and all that. Yet it’s fair to say that the champions of England, the most unlikely champions in history, are being slept on just a little. Like, a major tournament does its bit to hog the headlines as does an Olympic Games on the brink of the footy season. But these last few months have also seen the Jose/Pep rivalry instilled in the Premier League, with each club going hard in the transfer window there. It’s seen Jurgen Klopp chatting to kids, sending a misbehaving player home from tour and beating Barcelona 4-0 (again, pre-season). It’s seen record transfers from a number of clubs, Leicester included, and as well as Jose and Pep it’s seen also new managers at Chelsea (Conte!), Everton (Koeman!), Southampton (Puel!), Watford (Mazzarri, sure) and Sunderland (erm, Moyes). Big Sam Allardyce is now the England manager. Hull City don’t actually have a manager. Football never stops and it certainly doesn’t linger.
Which is probably the main reason why Leicester aren’t being rated again. Everyone loves them, everyone wants to see them do well. But every one of the clubs that they finished ahead of got the memo last season, from the lower fellas who now have the belief that Anything Is Possible to the traditional powerhouses that took the wake-up call like a punch in the face. You can’t respond much more firmly than bringing in the world’s most prestigious manager or breaking the world transfer window. Last season was a miracle, it was enough to remind even the most hardened cynics why they fell in love with the game in the first place. The feeling now seems to be that we’re about to resume regular service once again. Even Claudio Ranieri is back to his “40 points” focus.
Leicester haven’t exactly been quiet over the off-season though. It began with Arsenal’s approach for Jamie Vardy at the start of the Euros. One of the worries about their longevity was that the Foxes would lose their main players to bigger clubs offering bigger contracts. As long as they were all still there, things should be settled but as soon as one goes several others could follow. Vardy was the first test, yet he chose to remain with Leicester on an improved deal – no small decision that, since at 29 his window to sign with a top team is limited, though Ranieri could just as well have said: “Look mate, you’ve got Champions League footy here too and we just won the title”. Crisis averted.
However there was no convincing N’Golo Kante to stay once Chelsea came calling with an offer that met his release clause. Kante, such a star in the title run with his tireless work ethic and borderline supernatural ability to win possession in the midfield, chose to join a team without any European football. It’s a gamble for him, despite what he says, because if he’s gonna play Champions League, well there are about seven or eight clubs scrapping for four positions from England. The days of taking the Champions League for granted could be over. It’s also a massive blow for the Foxes to lose one of the rare midfielders out there capable of hustling at the tempo that they like to attack at.
Claudio Ranieri: "There will be a big difference. If Chelsea bought Kante, it's because he played as two players last season. The referee counted 11 but we were 12. Now everybody must understand that there is no Kante so we have to be more close, more attentive. We have to think different and close space quicker. We must be smarter."
Then there was the news that Riyad Mahrez was refusing to sign an offered extension and that he could be off as well. How much of that was true is hard to say but rumours of Arsenal interest remain. Ranieri has been defiant about this, however, declaring that they won’t be selling anyone, least of all the man voted PFA Players' Player of the Year last season.
And while they were busy locking up those that got them to where they are, including new deals for Vardy, Andy King, Kaspar Schmeichel and highly rated fullback Ben Chilwell, the Foxes also went about expanding their playing squad to cope with the extra games that they’ll face. As Ranieri says, he wants 22 players of the same calibre. A full squad with no weaknesses. Given that they only used 23 players in total last season that means several new faces were needed which in itself is a tricky thing for a manager to work with given what a fantastic team spirit they had already. Adding new egos into that can be dangerous. Same goes with trying to balance playing minutes for all of them, even with the new games. Don’t be shocked if we see Ranieri reveal a few more of the old Tinkerman strategies.
Nampalys Mendy was bought from Nice as a straight replacement for Kante, with the club well aware of Chelsea’s interest at that stage. Ron-Robert Zieler will be the backup keeper with Mark Schwarzer moved on, while Luis Hernandez adds cover at centre and right defence (and a huge throw in, which is handy). Bartosz Kapustka is a young Polish winger who some see as cover for Mahrez and Raul Uche is a teenaged striker from Rayo Vallecano who’ll be one for a few season’s time. Ahmed Musa, he’s the club’s new record signing.
Having said that, Musa didn’t exactly arrive on Pogba money (around £16.6 million). He was picked up from CSKA Moscow, where he scored 54 times in 164 matches (as a striker or winger) and is a regular international for Nigeria, one of their best players at the 2014 World Cup in fact. At 23, he’s got room to get better but already his raw pace and power make him a salivating addition to the team. They could chuck him on the wing if need be but he’ll mostly see time as a striker, making Leicester’s centre forward options something to admire. Jamie Vardy is the main fella, slinking around at speed and slamming home goals. Shinji Okazaki doesn’t score a lot but he works as hard as anyone and provides a great link between the midfield and the forwards. Leonardo Ulloa is more of a target man with aerial presence and strength, he’ll play high and look to poach a few. And Musa, he’s a little bit of all of them. Just look at this against Barcelona and imagine the ways in which Leicester, a team whose favourite strategy is to counter attack from deep, can put him to use:
That there looks a brilliant bit of transfer dealing already. However there’s a slight worry that they haven’t done enough to strengthen in other places. It’s always a delicate balance, since you can’t bring in too many newbies and expect the team dynamic to stay the same. Those intangibles are the arguably most important thing for Leicester. They went out for pizza after clean sheets – while Pep Guardiola just panned pizza from his players’ diets.
The Community Shield sort of highlighted that concern. The entire starting XI was the same XI that got them to this game, with Andy King coming in for N’Golo Kante. That’s more likely to be Ranieri rewarding last year’s team than anything more, since Zieler, Hernandez, Musa and Mendy were all on the bench and the three outfielders of them all got some time on the park, but you compare that to Manchester United who started Eric Bailly and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with Luke Shaw returning to fitness and Paul Pogba’s medical announced in the hours before kickoff. Ranieri has plenty of time, another three weeks, to add to his group and he has much longer than that to integrate his new fellas into the team. No reason to panic, it’s just an interesting contrast.
Bailly looked really good too, keeping up with Vardy and putting in a few hard challenges. He did get a yellow in the second half for a stupid one of the England forward but it was otherwise an impressive debut where he limited Vardy as much as most people can. Not too many PL defenders have the tools that Bailly looks to have though. Vardy should be in for another 15+ league goals.
Leicester didn’t see a lot of the ball in those early stages, sitting back and looking to put Vardy away in space instead. United moved it around but not at too much pace and the Foxes dealt with it. This was about the sort of game you’d imagine for an initial kick-about, with players working hard to win the ball only to give it away poorly, something Man United were probably more guilty of.
The Foxes grabbed to 1-1 draws with Man Utd last season. Both were games in which they played in a similar way, playing deep and frustrating a team that in the last couple years hasn’t been the best a breaking down defences. The Foxes almost snatched the lead when Shinji Okazaki flicked a header from a corner onto the frame of the goal but it was a stunning Jesse Lingard goal that was the difference in the first half. It’s great work from the man who scored the winner at Wembley in the 2016 FA Cup final but the challenge from Wes Morgan was… poor. Morgan is one player who it’s fair to say could drop off. He and Robert Huth are each in their 30s and as brilliant as Morgan was throwing himself about and blocking shot after shot last season, you lose a hint of pace and those blocks become clumsy challenges like the one that Lingard skipped past. Morgan played a bit for Jamaica in between seasons too, though he missed their first Copa America game with the coach saying he needed a little more rest after his intensive schedule of partying post-Premier League title. Keep an eye on it, maybe.
The one position that they might want to upgrade next is Danny Simpson at right back, the ex-MUFC fullback being probably a little weaker than they could manage. Still, he did a fine job in keeping Anthony Martial quiet for the most part. In the middle they benefitted from Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini all being wasteful with the ball, although Andy King may not hold down that starter’s role long term.
Leicester changed things up in the second half, with Demarai Gray and Ahmed Musa coming on. Albrighton and Okazaki replaced. With that much speed to work with, suddenly they were causing plenty more problems in a more open game of football. It was Musa that made the break that ended up leading to the equaliser, thanks to a perfect through ball by Fellaini to Vardy. Sloppy from him, but typical Leicester always ready to pounce.
And that’s both the most exciting and most worrying thing about Leicester moving into the new term: they played exactly the same. On one hand it’s endearing to see them keep on keeping on and nobody has figured it out yet. On the other hand maybe they will now and maybe it won’t be as repeatable without Kante and with a few different faces – although it should be said that Ranieri did make a few experimental moves in that title season. Switching the fullbacks up to shore the defence, for one. Plus they don’t play with any pretensions, they know what they want to do and they play to their strengths. That’s why Musa looks so good already – he fits the mould of a Leicester player and when there’s a mould, it’s easier to scout for them.
Which is where their biggest loss comes in. Steve Walsh, head of scouting and assistant manager, left for Everton where he becomes the new director of football. This is the man personally responsible for scouting Mahrez and Kante amongst others in this squad. Not a loss to be swept under the carpet but hopefully not one they can’t overcome given the framework that’s now in place.
In the end, a late Zlatan Ibrahimovic header (over Wes Morgan’s shoulder) won the game for Manchester United. The Foxes pushed for an equaliser but it didn’t come. Perhaps this was evidence that the big boys are back and Leicester won’t be able to compete with them again. United weren’t even all that good themselves. Or maybe… maybe this is a sign of the champions building back into something. After all, the Lingard goal should have been avoidable and there weren’t too many other chances that they gave up, while at the other end Riyad Mahrez was a long way off his best and this Leicester attack still caused problems. On another day, you never quite know how this might have gone.
So will they do it all over again this season? If we’ve learned our lesson over the last 18 months then we’d better not count them out just yet.
Wes Morgan: “Last season no-one thought it was possible and we did that, so why not? We’re defending champions, we’re full of confidence, we know what we’re capable of. On our day we are capable of beating anyone so I don’t see we can’t go ahead and do it again. We’re going to have to be ready for the onslaught, so to speak, but that’s to be expected as defending champions. We’ll be ready when the time comes.”
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