Will the Premier League break prove good or bad for Leicester, and the league as a whole?
The break didn’t come at a good time for us, in form and on the up as we were, but equally I’m not too troubled by it.
I really do think the players and manager have turned a corner now – although we beat League One opposition in midweek, it was the kind of assured and dominant performance that gave us nothing to be concerned about at this point.
I doubt we’ll see too many well-oiled machines after the break – ultimately, very few players are truly match-fit at this point – so it’ll be a big advantage to the teams who can adapt quickest. There’s no reason to think that one of those can’t be us.
After the club suffered a miserable summer window, the break will have been very welcome for Martyn Glover, Brendan Rodgers and the wider recruitment team – they’ve had some real time to take stock, make a plan of action and do their best to make some things happen in January and beyond.
Joe Brewin
A mixed bag. Bad, in the sense that we were playing so well beforehand that it's unlikely to carry over, but better long term in that more or less the whole squad has had a month off.
The schedule is going to be so congested from now on that it might be a big advantage - especially in cup competitions if we play bigger sides who have Europe to worry about.
There's a clear lack of excitement around the build up to the restart, though. It's going to be interesting to see how much that has seeped through to the players. The start of the World Cup was similar and then everyone was loving it within a few days. But how many players (looking at you, no. 10) were super motivated to make the tournament and now may not have the same drive?
In terms of quality and legitimacy, the break hasn't been good for the league. But for pure chaos and content it might work out well. January could be all over the place. It's like having another pre-season with a transfer window going on. Lots of new managers about, and a few bad results could have owners at panic stations.
Things might be about to get wild?
James Knight
It's really hard to judge as it's a unique thing to occur at this point of the season and it is, after all, the same for everyone.
The only comparable situation was Project Restart after Covid hit. In my view we sleepwalked through the first few games of that and by the time we woke up, we had Ryan Bennett at the back which was never going to end well. With that in mind, the Carabao Cup game was perfect preparation and couldn't have gone better. Let's hope we carry that into Boxing Day.
There's been a lot to dislike about Qatar 2022 off the pitch but I never felt the 'World Cup in Winter' was ever really going to be a problem for us fans. It'll almost certainly happen again in 8 years time too.
How the players feel towards the end of the season is the big unknown. In that regard, we've not had any players go deep in the tournament which is good fitness wise but is a worry in other ways - a supposedly established Premier League team not having any players make much of an impact on the tournament?
We've got a really tough restart in Newcastle and Liverpool and could well enter 2023 back in trouble. Let's hope that thought focuses a few minds and we hit the ground running this time.
Iain Wright
The performance on Tuesday night was heartening in some ways. It was always going to be a win but the players approached it professionally. You really wouldn’t expect anything less, thankfully.
My main concern before the break was how we were going to cope with the loss of James Justin. Every other area of the team looked to be functioning well. So again it was a relief to see Luke Thomas putting in such an impressive display at Milton Keynes.
The thing that worries me is less about the momentum being halted by the break and more about two excellent teams putting a stop to our fine run of form. These two will be tough and I hope this team’s questionable confidence comes through them unscathed.
David Bevan
