Tonight, the excuses disappear - so will there be a King Power atmosphere?
Looking at the Championship league table, the barren atmosphere at the King Power Stadium this season may not seem much of an issue. Leicester City have the best home record in the Championship: 11 wins from 13 games.
Even so, there are only pockets of vocal support. There are loud sections but no sustained noise from most areas of the ground. Whether you view the different contributing factors as reasons or excuses, tonight most of those factors disappear and we will find out whether this home crowd is capable of vocal backing or not.
This evening's game against Ipswich Town is not a sleepy early kickoff, the opposition is strong, the stakes are high and, in what seems like a rarity this season, we're facing adversity.
The middle of the park is a concern, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall doubtful, Wilfred Ndidi injured, Cesare Casadei back at Chelsea, Dennis Praet having had no recent minutes and Yunus Akgun physically unreliable. We've also started to leak goals, shipping 11 in the past 8 games in all competitions after conceding just 5 in the previous 8. The 3 late goals scored by Coventry against 10 men last Saturday obviously altered that figure significantly and the arrival of our long-time challengers this evening feels like a fork in the road for this side. How will our players cope with a bit of pressure? And how will the fans?
The atmosphere on Filbert Way won't magically change overnight. It's a step-by-step process to get there and this evening feels like a staging post. Nobody is expecting a seething, bubbling cauldron for ninety minutes tonight. But, even if some people aren't interested in creating those surroundings for the players, surely they must acknowledge they could help the players more? And this evening would be a good time to start?
There's clearly a problem of expectation and entitlement. While some people have even blamed the speed of the version of When You're Smiling we play for the lunar atmosphere that follows, there is one similarly trivial issue with the pre-match build-up that might make a difference. Because it probably doesn't help that the miracle of 2016 isn't just some lingering memory - it's front and centre moments before kickoff on the video montage. That glorious sight prompts a round of applause and perhaps, in that instant, in some minds, re-plants the seed each time that we're entitled to compete against teams more storied than the ones we're facing at the moment.
In that era, we were the underdog, even when we were winning every week and sitting top of the entire football pyramid. You can't cast a team on course for a record points total as the underdog, but that status obviously helped the atmosphere and we may not get that buzz back until we're up against it again. Even last season, when relegation was a viable option from early on, there was always a feeling that, because it shouldn't have been happening, the majority of fans were merely waiting for normal service to be resumed.
Yet this is Leicester City. This is a fanbase still haunted by those two failed bids for Champions League football in 2020 and 2021. There's no way we should ever be taking anything for granted, even now. We know even a steamrollering, globetrotting superteam that wins 9-0 can lose to that same opposition later that season. And a quieter atmosphere is much more liable to turn ugly if things go wrong. For years, that felt like the perfect way to describe Goodison Park. That changes when it matters though. Everton fans find their voices approaching the finale and that cost us last season. Despite some decent noise at some of our own home games in the same period, the abiding memory is of swathes of empty seats in the dying moments rather than undying support to the last whistle.
Enzo Maresca has referenced the need for a more vocal home support on more than one occasion and his clear appreciation of the Union FS section perhaps belies the clash between an English atmosphere and a European one. Italy is just one of several countries where, at some stadiums, you can find a constant din regardless of the state of the game. There are even some English stadiums where that often happens. It's not the norm though and, to be blunt, it simply depends whether people care enough to deviate from that norm.
While our previous opponents received plaudits for their home atmosphere, the team we're facing tonight recently wilted in the face of one. Ipswich's last visit to a promotion contender didn't go well for them, 4-0 down before the hour at a vibrant Elland Road two days before Christmas.
Leeds were back there yesterday for a narrow victory over Preston North End. Despite the graveyard midday Sunday slot, there was a lurking chatter around the ground even during the quieter periods on the pitch. This is mainly just the habit of fans who are used to generating something. But it was also, despite Leeds being the better team, the edge of Preston going ahead early on, the home side's lack of total control, the constant threat of a counter-attack or set piece, the Leeds need for their eventual 94th-minute winner - things that we've only experienced occasionally on Filbert Way this season.
There was also an uplift whenever the likes of Crysencio Summerville and Dan James got the ball and ran at the Preston defence, which brings us, inevitably, to the Enzo way. Jannik Vestergaard standing with his foot on the ball ten yards inside the opposition half and looking for options may not bring the same roar as end-to-end football but it seems unlikely that this evening will be a possession-heavy waltz to victory.
Some people want an atmosphere. Some aren't as concerned. Soon it won’t be about wants. We've got to start building towards a time when the team needs us.
