Hazzetta dello Sport 2024 - Issue 9: Leicester City v Nottingham Forest
Hold the front page they say at our printers down at St George Street. Don’t waste that beautiful pink paper. There’s a late change to the headline and sub-titles.
Friday night lights. Rivalries renewed. Forest return to LE and face their former manager. How to get the juices flowing? How do we try to build the fans to a frenzy? To boost that atmosphere as we’ve seen can occur when it gets dark down Filbert Way.
Coconut Rolls.
Free Coconut Rolls.
That’s the answer.
It belongs on the BBC’s Twenty Twelve. It’s not a spoof - it will be happening.
It's the latest instalment of ‘Who’s Leicester City’s rival anyway?’ Last season, the focus turned towards the M69 and a level of toxicity was returned to not seen since Highfield Road still stood. Things can change quickly. In February, I wrote about how the mood around Coventry City was one of a club on an upwards journey while we looked rather bogged down in our predicament as being the favourites.
After a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road on Tuesday evening, Coventry entered the relegation zone of the Championship and the expectation of a promotion season weighs heavy on Mark Robins. By contrast, Steve Cooper alleviated opinion towards him. His own performance was faulted on Saturday at St Mary’s but the incredible turnaround has made the Premier League table look very comfy for a moment.
The Hazzetta might as well have been called Coopzetta given how he’s dominated topic by splitting opinion with his decision making and managerial performance from the very beginning of pre-season. This fixture against Forest is pivotal towards everyone’s opinion on him. If he loses it’s going to be held against him.
It was evident how much he bought into the hysteria that surrounds the Nottingham club with Paul Smith jacket and Klopp-esque celebrations. When the Wes Morgan song was edited at Craven Cottage in August towards Cooper, he looked sheepish in communication towards the away end. ‘Give me a song but not that song’ must have surely crossed his mind.
Anyone trying to underplay the game as not really a derby fixture fails to understand the city of Leicester and its citizens’ psyche as an underdog. Anyone that has had the awful moment of being in the City Ground post-Leicester loss as you exit the away end and head towards Trent Bridge can tell you that any notion they don’t care is nonsense.
We can’t accuse Cooper of not failing to understand what it means. That FA Cup 4-1 result at the City Ground was their opportunity to quieten a fanbase that had correctly, through trophies, taken the limelight and began to chip away at shared boundaries of supporters towards blue rather than red.
In the rivalry debate, you can simplify it to say it’s subject to where you live and what you border. You live off the A5 or M69, it’s Coventry. The North Leicestershire borders, Derby or towards the East of that, it’s Forest. The towns of Hinckley, Ashby-De-La Zouch and Melton Mowbray are battle grounds of rivalry. There will be more than one household nervous in the home of the Pork Pie on Friday evening.
For me however, the centre of the City has always viewed Forest as that outstanding rival of them all. Why? My answer would be regional radio and TV. The regional news base of the East Midlands is Nottingham and it was always conveyed in the local press of BBC regions at 6.30pm that Nottingham gets that more coverage. Leicester sits as a secondary story despite its rich sporting achievements.
Blame Dennis Coates or Nat Jackson; the latter who in her time faced accusations that she liked Billy Davies. Panthers of ice hockey fame would get more minutes than Riders of basketball fame. This extends to regional government funding which felt as if it would centre largely on Nottingham. The famed Nottingham East Midlands Airport an example of this.
The rivalry apparently isn’t quite felt the same over there and their eyes concentrate on Derby. As my career has developed, I’ve noticed how both Nottingham and Derby’s economies sit within each other. The counties feel as though they overlap in places such as Ilkeston, Long Eaton and Heanor. People from Derby work in Nottingham and vice versa which gives their games a rather more city derby feel.
Leicester lives more on its own axis; even in the professional careers. While Nottingham hosts big consultancies and institutions, there are smaller, niche companies choosing to stay within LE. My own family as builders would never go to Nottingham for work but rather more Northamptonshire; Leicestershire looks south for its work rather than north.
It's a battle for regional supremacy. While there is no Monday morning feeling of dread, you can laud it as the kings of the East Midlands. We all want the satisfaction of your taxi driver on holiday abroad saying ‘Yes, I know Leicester’. In harsh reality, there is the factor of perception to young players in the terrifying way football clubs attempt to hoover up talent.
Ironically with the staging of a Friday night derby, there is a distinct possibility of this being a snoozefest. Nottingham Forest’s morph into Nuno’s mould is almost complete. A centre-half pairing you’ll struggle to better in the Premier League. James Ward-Prowse’s ability at set pieces gives comparisons to Ruben Neves and the same could be said about Chris Wood being Nuno’s new Raul Jimenez. As those of us who’ve suffered those games against Nuno’s Wolves, when Diogo Jota doesn’t create a 4-3 thriller, they are often empty of incident and moments.
Cooper did let off the hand brake in the fielding of Bilal El Khannouss playing in the no 10 role on Saturday. That’s twice he’s thrown him in which is unlike other decisions he’s made - but interestingly, both have been after international breaks which makes you question if it’s a freshness issue with the players who travel that bit further than North Africa rather than a tactical decision.
There are calls to release the Fatawu onto Forest after his match winning performance at Southampton. If Leicester want to push at a weakness of Forest’s, testing the full backs and trying to use second man runners may be the answer. Vardy will have a tough challenge with little reward for himself but it’s pivotal he occupies the centre-back pairing of Forest.
As last weekend it’s important to take advantage of more favourable fixtures when the three of Southampton (v Manchester City), Wolves (v Brighton) and Palace (v Spurs) would create a surprise in winning. That would lead to a significant nine-point gap from relegation for Leicester and eleven from the foot of the table.
