Premier League champions Leicester City edge closer to drop, but what's gone wrong?
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It was only nine months ago Andrea Bocelli stood in the middle of the King Power Stadium, belting out the classics next to a teary Claudio Ranieri in one of the Premier League's most surreal scenes.
Leicester City, somewhat fortunate to still be in the top division and operating with far fewer resources than the usual title-chasing suspects could boast, had won the league. It was a captivating story, perhaps the greatest in a year of double-take sports moments.
Nobody expected Leicester to do it again this season, but nobody expected them to be relegated either. After 25 games and in the middle of February, that is what the Foxes are faced with.
The most recent 2-0 loss to fellow drop-zone flirters Swansea has the Foxes only one point shy of the bottom three and in free-fall. But how did Leicester City fall from grace so hard and so quickly?
The loss of a midfield general
Leicester was relieved to get out last year's summer transfer window without losing too many stars of the title triumph. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez remained, but there was still to be one notable loss.
N'Golo Kante moved on to Chelsea for a significant, but not nearly Pogba-esque fee. Many considered him to have been the best player of the 2015/16 season, and there was concern his absence would be a difficult one for Leicester to handle.
Turns out, losing Kante was an even bigger deal than we thought at the time. While the Frenchman has continued being incredible, and is currently on his way to picking up his second winner's medal in as many years, Leicester has completely fallen to bits without his protective presence in the midfield.
Kante is the best tackler and intercepter in the Premier League. He makes poor defenders look good by ensuring the play doesn't even get to them, and he can make life easy for attackers by constantly supplying them the ball in advanced positions.
It's an easy answer, but a correct one — no Kante, no Leicester.
Weary defenders crumble under exposure
The by-product of the Kante-shaped hole in midfield has been more responsibility on aging defenders Wes Morgan and Robert Huth. Before last season, few would have considered them to be league-leading centre halves, but they certainly looked the part as Leicester shut teams out en route to the title.
So were Morgan and Huth actually incredible centre backs? Or was our gut right, and they were merely bulky veterans at the heart of a thriving system and a team on a roll?
The latter. They've looked every bit their 33 and 32 years this season, leaking goals at an alarming rate and looking a shadow of the players they were only 12 months ago.
There's also a theory the refereeing crackdown on holding and wrestling at set pieces has taken away their greatest weapon. There's more than a little truth in that too.
Attacking weapons firing blanks
Remember the year of Jamie Vardy? When the unlikely striking hero set records for goal-scoring, fired Leicester to the title, scored for England at the Euros and had an incredibly weird dude making money by looking a little bit like him?
Yeah. That's gone. Vardy can't score for love nor money this season. He hasn't even had a shot on target in the Premier League since December 17 — he's not getting the supply, and he's not making the most of the scraps he's getting.
The biggest outside contributor to the year of Vardy was his team-mate Riyad Mahrez, who laid goals on for his mate with utter ease last season and wasn't afraid to slot a few worldies himself.
Mahrez was frustrated he wasn't allowed to leave Leicester before the season started, and that frustration has turned into a seriously ineffectual season. These two were the heartbeat of Leicester last season, but have been flat lining since August.
Opponents are hanging back
As horrible as it sounds, complacency played a large part in Leicester's glory last season. Teams didn't take the Foxes seriously until it was too late, and assumed their direct, counter-attacking style was unsustainable.
This term, nobody is making that mistake. Opposition managers know if you deny Leicester space in behind the defence, Vardy has nowhere to run to. If you sit a little bit deeper and allow Leicester the ball, they lack the creativity to break you down.
The Foxes are often being beaten at their own game by teams prepared to concede the ball to win the game.
Feel-good factor a distant memory
Leicester had the momentum of a runaway freight train last season, and by the end of the season the collective good will of football fans the world over seemed to be driving them to every crucial result.
Things turned sour at the club months ago though, with fans expecting sustained success and voicing their displeasure. Claudio Ranieri became the object of some fans' ire in remarkably quick time.
Ranieri recently got the "full support of the board" message, which doubles as a last warning in some observers' eyes. It's not a nice place to be playing this season, and without those positive vibes the players look like they'd rather be somewhere else.
Topics: english-premier, soccer, sport, england, united-kingdom
