The Fosse Way

The great Leicester City exodus is on. For so long a mirage that hovered just out of reach, the Squad Refresh is happening.

With eight players having already departed Leicester City this summer, and at least a couple more to come, we are looking at a complete overhaul of the starting XI.

If we assume Bilal El Khannouss and Victor Kristiansen are next to go, then six of the seven players with the most starts in the Premier League last season have left the club. Were Wout Faes to also depart, that would make it a clean sweep of the top seven.

Even with Faes staying, the players who have left accounted for just over half (51%) of the total minutes played in the last league campaign. This is a big change.

The sales so far have brought in around £50 million, which will probably stretch to something in the region of £80 million once all outgoing business is done. We’re guessing a bit with wages, and we can assume relegation clauses would have reduced this burden to some extent, but if we take last year’s figures from Capology as a guide, Leicester have cut over £24 million from the annual wage bill so far.

Along with the happy coincidence that most of the players sold were rubbish, this seems to have eased the financial pressure on the club. Clearing the path for a late trolley dash for new signings.

To this point Leicester have done virtually nothing. The transfer window slams shut on Monday evening, in five days’ time. We need to do something, but time and resources are limited, and we need to prioritise.

That might mean only one or two new faces, even in a best case scenario. The clear priority is at least one starter-level quality midfielder, and probably a striker as well.

Leicester are, like it or not, a possession team. Through three games, an average of 63% possession works out as the most in the division. This is not surprising. We are one of the stronger teams in the Championship and we like to hand the opponent a head start, that equates to a lot of the ball.

You need competent midfielders to do something with it. You also need to recover the ball and protect the defence when you lose it. Marti Cifuentes likes to press, so the players need to be fit enough to keep that up for a whole season.

When you look at the current squad depth as a whole, the need for players of that ilk in those central areas is stark:

From a depth perspective, things are fine. Hamza Choudhury and Ricardo Pereira are midfield options, Jordan Ayew has played at #10, De Cordova Reid could theoretically do that as well. Louis Page and Will Alves can contribute and hopefully grow as the season goes on.

Over a 46-game season, however, there’s not enough genuine quality in there for a team that’s trying to get promoted. None of those players are Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, nor are they Wilfred Ndidi. Only one of them is Harry Winks.

The first three games have exposed the dramatic drop in midfield class compared to two years ago. In particular, the weakness of a Boubakary Soumare – Oliver Skipp “double pivot”.

A transfer window that remains open throughout the first month of the season may be one of the most disastrous rules in the sport, but at least it means you have your inadequacies exposed in live action before it’s too late.

The lack of vision and intent on the ball from those two players is by far the biggest issue that needs to be addressed. Soumare is a defensive midfielder who can’t defend, Skipp is an all-action player who doesn’t get involved in the game. A rehabilitated Winks would be a big part of the solution, but realistically a new face is needed to compliment him.

Soumare has only a year left on his deal, whereas Skipp has four(!). A replacement for the former is the best use of money right now, then you hope a better partner helps Skipp to improve. He has much more potential value to Leicester than Soumare does.

Focusing on that area with the bulk of whatever resources we have means less pressure to solve the attacking midfield issue. Quality attacking midfielders do not come cheap and most people don’t want to let theirs go, especially this late in the window.

Leicester were able to use the Premier League to extract El Khannouss from Belgium a year ago, we can’t dangle that carrot this time around.

A more solid base would reduce the amount of goals we need to score, and would probably free up the attack to be more effective anyway. If your midfield can’t get control of the game, the attackers can’t get into it. This touch map from the Charlton game shows the chasm in central areas:

A permanent central midfielder, ideally combined with an attempt to convince a young attacking player on loan from the Premier League is the ideal solution. That would allow Cifuentes to shape the midfield in the way he wants, rather than his current patchwork job, using bits of leftover, rusting metal to try to build an aeroplane.

The other obvious issue is up front. That suffers from many of the same issues as finding a new #10, the main difference being that a new face would take minutes away from Jordan Ayew and Patson Daka, rather than two academy products.

Again, a loan seems more likely, and probably a better use of resources than splashing out on an expensive new striker who would certainly not have been the first choice.

Another forward would have the benefit of freeing up Ayew to play deeper, where he’s probably better anyway. Plus, of course, the striker might score goals, which neither of the current incumbents are very adept at doing.

There are clearly other areas that, in an ideal world, would be strengthened. A starting left back would be nice, so would another winger. Leicester probably should have signed two strikers this summer, never mind zero by the end of August. The entire midfield could be replaced and no one would lose any sleep over it.

This is not an ideal world. Leicester need fresh faces in key areas more than we need to gorge on as many signings as possible. Rather than trying to fix everything, it makes sense to make a couple of moves in the areas that will have the most impact.

You can’t be a good team without a good midfield. Quality in those areas tend to make other players look better, by protecting the defence and making sure the exciting attacking players get the ball.

Over to you, Jon.