It’s the inevitability that gets you: Nottingham Forest 2 Leicester City 0 (14 January 2023)
Google tells us that helplessness is the belief that there is nothing that anyone can do to improve a bad situation.
It’s a disarming, detaching feeling; the kind that might make you spew anger at first, then leave your brain numb in a state of suspended stupor.
Trying to make sense of Leicester City right now is like trying to fix Christmas lights: amid a tangled web of misery, it could be any number of broken bulbs that are stopping the lot from working. In the meantime, we’ll just carry on sitting here in the dark.
Harvey danger
The worst part of this latest defeat, a fourth in four matches since returning from the worst-timed mid-season break imaginable, wasn’t that it came against fellow relegation rivals, or that those rivals were Nottingham Forest. It was the inevitability of it. For much – most? – of the fan base, this was a fully expected defeat.
Halfway through the season, we are very much expecting this team – 8th last season, lest we forget – to visit promoted clubs and get their arses handed to them. We treat an impending football match like a major operation, where it’s not a case of whether you’ll be in pain during and after, but how much of it you’ll have to suffer. We embrace the lapping tides of doom in advance, then drown in the deep on matchday.
Right now, this is life on repeat at Leicester – a club stuck in a whirlpool of catastrophe, threatening to be sucked under for good.
It’s hard to know where to start right now, so we’ll get Brendan Rodgers’ pure bad luck out of the way first: Harvey Barnes’ squandering not one but two gilt-edged chances that would have put City ahead either side of half-time. Such is his form right now that they both felt in keeping with the current situation, but still: it didn’t make them any less painful to watch.
The rest, though, is on Rodgers. He can nag about injuries and net spend, and he can legitimately lament having been trapped in the transfer market all summer. What he can’t do is blame the latest defensive calamities on those circumstances alone. It was no surprise that our one good run of form this season coincided with a greater focus on defence; a system where even Youri Tielemans was called upon for right-back duties, and which eventually led to five clean sheets in six matches.
Rodgers clearly feels he can’t do the same this time. With James Maddison sidelined and central midfield options comically short of late, Tielemans is this team’s solitary creator – but these results are unforgivable. Leicester aren’t just getting carved open by the best teams: this has happened throughout this season, no matter the level of opposition. That we weren’t five down to Newcastle by half-time in midweek was down to nothing more than sheer dumb luck; at the City Ground, it didn’t even require a similar onslaught from the hosts to crack this case.
Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V
Opposition players stroll through our midfield as if it doesn’t exist. Watching our backline rush out to lay an offside trap 50 yards from goal is like watching a swarm of flies hurtling towards an electric death. Both of these glorious sights were once again on full display as Brennan Johnson scored his first Premier League goals since September 3. In need of a confidence boost? You know where to come.
Rodgers’ setup shouldn’t be this exposed. This team should not be making the exact same mistakes over and over again. His post-match soundbites shouldn’t be this easy to predict:
“We didn't start the second half well enough.”
“We lost our concentration and gave the ball away cheaply.”
“We should've gone on and done better as a team.”
“The manager takes responsibility for the results – how they come about is something that we go away and look at.”
And as ever, the usual money shot about new arrivals.
“Not at this moment. I think the club will announce if they have any players that we've signed.”
You’d laugh if you weren’t so empty inside.
The blame game
So on we go with a festering squad: half of the first-choice XI crocked, including our best player who’ll inevitably leave in the summer for less than his true value. Those that are left play on in painfully wretched form: either temporarily – see Wout Faes, as composed as a drunk streaker since the World Cup – or permanently, simply short of the required quality for this level. Former talismen are dying in the fight, stumbling around the bodies of those ready to be carried to the morgue this summer. The results? A team that’s defensively abject, creatively inept and heading for the trap door.
We’re all beaten at this point – our boss included. The one thing we know is that change is essential for this football club to remain in the Premier League for next season: a change of fortune, a change of players, a change of approach. A change of manager would have happened long ago in most other environments, but the smog of uncertainty around everything at this club means even that topic isn’t so clear cut. Trying to identify exactly who is to blame for what feels like an impossible game right now.
But it’s not just change – it’s change now. Not this summer, or even in a fortnight. Whether it’s accelerating transfers or sacking the manager, something must give in the coming days – because our future at this level very much depends on it now.
Do nothing, and look away for that slump towards oblivion. Otherwise known as Hull on a Tuesday night.
