Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester has quickly been brought down to earth this season after losing three of their four games so far this season. It was known to everybody that this year the Foxes would be facing their hardest test with the added pressure of the Champions League as well as trying to keep up with the teams of the top half. The club has spent extensively in the transfer market, breaking their transfer record three times in the summer.
The manager displayed much practicality when he stated that keeping the team in the top half would be the priority this season as he will have to build it again. As of now, the signs are not encouraging at all. Leicester currently lie in 16th place, a place not very unfamiliar to them but after the performances of last season, it is bound to look odd, as we are speaking of the current champions here.
It must be noted that after their seemingly impossible feat, their main players were at all targeted by the big clubs of the Premier League. Much to their credit, the Foxes managed to keep all of their players including, Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Kasper Schmeichel and Danny Drinkwater to name a few but N’Golo Kanté. Kanté left for Chelsea as the London club paid €35.8m for his services. While at Chelsea, the Frenchman has instantly made his impact, his former club has been missing him dearly.
Kante’s replacement, Nampalys Mendy has been good but to replicate what Kanté did will require him to play at a level which is next to impossible. Mendy can do the job alongside Danny Drinkwater but somewhere it will still feel that they are a player short in the middle of the pitch. Steve Walsh was absolutely serious when he remarked that Leicester play with Drinkwater in the middle and Kanté on both the sides to allow them function as a 3 man midfield rather than 2. Claudio Ranieri is now beginning to realize how big a hole the France international has left in the midfield.
It can be argued that it’s too early to get paranoid but the truth is that Leicester hasn’t managed to get their combinations right at all so far. Ranieri has tried three combinations in their four games with the last experiment of pairing Daniel Amartey with Danny Drinkwater failing miserably. Leicester at the moment look increasingly like a mid-table team scrambling to find their best eleven and struggling for form. Kante’s loss will not allow Leicester to field a two-man midfield anymore. Ranieri needs to change his formation fast and ensure that in trying to find the perfect combination the team doesn’t drop any more points. With their Champions League campaign starting from 15th September, time is fast running out for the current Premier League champions.
