Calm after the storm - Hazzetta dello Sport 2024/25 - Newcastle United (A)
A remarkable week within the world of Leicester City. The tonic of four points and no public relation disasters has meant everything is quiet.
There’s no social media rage. There’s no anxiety of playing performances. The anger of the supporters has quietened. How are we going to write 800 words on this?
It feels significant that for once in this season, there’s a calm and the waters don’t look so stormy for City anymore. There is a quiet confidence that the team is being steered correctly. Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s nature has been wise and inclusive. The emphasis on the squad and when individuals have been praised it’s been well measured.
The fixtures of December exhibited a fear for Leicester fans of being left behind in the relegation zone as the games got tougher and others would catch up. That gloomy forecast grew deeper as November went away and the gap between the bottom three was a single point.
There was an expectation as Wolves fixture difficulty got easier, they would begin their ascent up the table. That hasn’t happened and they find themselves in a deep crisis. Now at a crossroads with their manager, the apparent inability to find a replacement is the deciding factor in keeping Gary O’Neil in situ. The early drop on Steve Cooper appears sensible now.
The point from Sunday afternoon owed a lot to the mercurial Jamie Vardy. He’s amid one of his spells. In his last seven Premier League appearances, Vardy has scored four and set up three. Despite years of Leicester fans insisting he’s not a pure goal getter, the media appeared to have only just woken up to it this week. The technique in his volleyed goal was sublime and the intelligence in his assists superb.
There was a question mark if he could ever hit 150 Premier League goals but the odds now look favourable. Such is the freshness of his performances and the art in how he’s leading the line, a question is already occurring if he’s worth another contract.
Alongside Vardy’s prowess, the hugely welcoming part of the result on Sunday was how much more structured City looked. Brighton may have been refined and more talented but Leicester were wilier than any other time in the season. In a way, that Brighton’s second was the result of a hopeful long ball was an improvement on the way City were giving up chances from their own errors earlier in the season.
The outlook of the Premier League live table did not look good with ten minutes remaining of the Sunday 2pm kick-offs. It may be decisive how it turned around. Ipswich conceding two late goals in combination with City’s late comeback turned a potential one point gap into a five point gap.
Therefore it’s typical that an injury crisis is creeping into the Leicester City squad and hence why maybe Van Nistelrooy has been keen to highlight the need to use his squad. The issues are big within central midfield.
Wilf Ndidi’s hamstring is set to keep him out for at least a couple of weeks and Harry Winks hasn’t recovered from his own injury in time. Bouba Soumare’s regular yellow cards have quickly tallied up to five. Thus we are left with Oliver Skipp who in his recent, fleeting appearances has looked short of fitness and energy and Hamza Choudhury, who as we are quite aware is limited in the top flight.
Van Nistelrooy can choose these pair, or look at some risky use of a player out of position (although Kasey McAteer has some experience there), and the final option of utilising one of the Under 21s. Numerous of the youthful batch have been namechecked this week but the emerging option is that of Henry Cartwright. Aged 20, he’s scored three and assisted two from his eight games in Premier League 2.
Where Newcastle really took advantage in their previous games across the 2022/23 season was their ability to bully us along, particularly in midfield which isn’t a great omen. Alongside this, a lot of their danger is their wingers, again another weaker part of the Leicester squad. The thought of Harvey Barnes running at James Justin is painful not only from the ex-player point of view, but his direct nature will really test Justin.
The caveat to why that five point gap is so important is that Wolves take on Ipswich over the weekend (also 3pm on Saturday). There’s a run of results which could see Wolves overtake Leicester by Christmas. Therefore, this quieter aura around the Foxes at the moment possibly has more importance than ever. Not to get carried away with the glory nor the disappointment.
Watching Harvey Barnes playing against Leicester this week will be odd. There have been two other oddities this week.
Finding out Zsolt Lackzo is currently managing Budapest-based and historic Honved in the Hungarian second tier. While it was remarkable that Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall got a start for Chelsea on Thursday evening in the extremes of Europe, this paled into insignificance when a substitution was made in the 86th minute. Dewsbury-Hall was joined on the pitch by Lloyd Dyer’s son, Kiano.
