Leicester’s campaign is just getting worse

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri is under pressure for his teams results to improve

Leicester’s campaign was always going to be difficult after last season’s Premier League triumph. However, I doubt many saw this season’s top-flight campaign going so disastrously wrong, though.

On Wednesday night the Foxes fielded a weakened team in the Champions League at Porto and suffered a 5-0 mauling.

The result mattered little in the context of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition, as Ranieri’s side had already sealed top spot.

Premier League worries

While the English champions have thrived in Europe, their Premier League plight seems to be getting worse by the week. A defeat against struggling Sunderland last weekend means that the Foxes are 16^th in the table, only two points clear of the relegation zone.

The contrast in the champions form from this season and last season is extreme. The Foxes have already suffered seven top-flight defeats this season, having suffered just three Premier League defeats all of last season.

The team looks like a shadow of its former self. It would be easy to point to the departure of influential midfielder N’Golo Kante as the main reason. However, there must be more to the Foxes downturn in fortunes than just the Frenchman’s departure.

No doubt Kante was and is a fantastic player. However, his exit should not have led to poorer performances from the likes of Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.

Claudio Ranieri now being questioned

Leicester’s Italian boss Claudio Ranieri was labelled a genius last season for helping the Foxes to the Premier League title. He was regarded as a nearly man prior to the triumph. The former Chelsea boss is obviously struggling to maintain the team’s standards of last season.

When he came into the club, people mocked his appointment and Leicester were made one of the favourites for relegation. However, he helped motivate and inspire the team to an incredible overachievement.

I have always been a fan of Ranieri as a boss. He always came across as a nice guy and somebody that is very honest. He was honest about his team selection in Wednesday night’s defeat.

Those questioning his team selection may have had a point. The game was meaningless for Leicester, but a 5-0 defeat cannot do much for morale in the squad, even if a number of the first team players did not feature.

With a big home game against Manchester City at the weekend, I can see why Ranieri picked a weakened team. The Foxes had already qualified for knockout stages of the competition. They needed their best players to be fresh for the weekend game against title-challenging City.

Ranieri is still a good manager and he will always be remembered for helping to produce the biggest surprise winners of the Premier League title. However, there is only so long he can dine out on that title victory. Football is fickle and some are now questioning the Italian’s managerial skills.

League form must improve

When the Champions League draw for the last-16 is made on Monday, Leicester can then put the competition to one side for the next few months. The Foxes really need to start picking up some wins in the Premier League.

By Leicester’s standards, they were ambitious in the summer and the squad should be better than last season’s. However, at the moment that is not showing and the Foxes are odds of 9/1 to be relegated this season.

It seems the players may still be getting over the euphoria of winning the title. There is something missing in that Leicester team and I do not just mean Kante. The spirit and the fight seem to have disappeared.

We all knew that last season a complete one-off, so the Foxes players need to wake-up and realise that if they do not start producing they will be in a relegation fight this season.

The triumph of last season, just like their European campaign needs to be forgotten about and the Foxes need to produce results and quickly.

I have no doubt that Leicester has enough quality to be higher in the table, but teams with good players have been relegated in the past and will be in the future. The champions being relegated may be just as extraordinary as their title victory last season.

I hope for the fans sake that it does not come down to that and the team start to win games sooner rather than later because Leicester’s was one of the best underdog tales in the history of British sport.

Can Leicester steer clear of the relegation dogfight this season?