10 Leicester City talking points from the 2022 World Cup
No minutes for Maddison
The main World Cup talking point among Leicester City fans was no different at the tournament to the clamour before the England squad was announced. Would James Maddison get on the pitch?
It was always going to be a big ask, and if the performances of Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka against Iran made it even less likely then the dazzling displays of Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden against Wales deemed it close to impossible. Here were four attacking players seemingly in excellent form and all of them ahead of Maddison in the pecking order. That’s before you even factor in the more established Jack Grealish and Mason Mount.
Yet, as England struggled to create clear opportunities as they exited at the hands of the French, it wasn’t only Leicester fans who were wondering whether the slightly more creative Maddison could have offered something different. Rashford’s introduction was understandable, although arguably too late.
It would have been a maverick move to give Maddison his first minutes of the tournament in the closing minutes of a quarter-final. For better or worse, Southgate’s no maverick, and soon all Maddison had to show for his weeks in the sun was a bit of a tan and, presumably, plenty of information about the delights of the north east given half of his fellow benchwarmers play for Newcastle.
The two main things that went against Maddison were out of his control.
Firstly, his eventual selection one or two squads too late gave him no time to prove himself at international level prior to the hustle and bustle of tournament football.
Secondly, the untimely knee injury that kept him out of the opening two games meant he was always playing catch-up.
On the flip side, he had form in his favour. By the time he pulls on a Leicester shirt again, that form will be around six weeks old - fingers crossed he can pick up where he left off.
Faes the future
I’m going to leave it to Alan Shearer here, on Belgium and Roberto Martinez, because he says it all.
‘I didn't expect them to be brilliant, but I expected them to be better than what they were.
‘He had to involve some of those players who have got over 100 caps. They have to be in charge of their career and when it ends at international level, because of what they've done.
‘You also have to have players coming through ready to push those players out. Use Wout Faes as an example, what I've seen of him in the Premier League for Leicester, he's better than what they've got defensively.’
Sums it up. Belgium looked as badly in need of a dynamic presence at the back as we did before Faes arrived on Filbert Way.
The Tielemans conundrum
After Belgium departed the tournament, Martinez picked out one name as an example of the country’s footballing future. It wasn’t Faes but instead Youri Tielemans. It’s highly unlikely Tielemans will still be a Leicester City player by the time the next major tournament rolls around in 18 months.
He suffered an even more disappointing World Cup than most of his compatriots, substituted at half time in the opening game after struggling to cope with Canada’s physicality and dropped for the next game against Morocco. He remained on the bench for the crucial clash with Croatia. Often the first name on the teamsheet for Leicester over the past few years and a consistent presence for his national team, it must have been a surprise to be watching from the sidelines so quickly.
The physicality question is never far away with Tielemans, but it mainly comes from supporters of the teams he’s being linked with rather than the one he plays for. Will Arsenal be having second thoughts?
The sound of Nampalys
The six Leicester City outfield players at the World Cup managed a grand total of one shot between them. Even that came from a surprising source: Nampalys Mendy, who can’t have had too many shots in his six and a half years at the club.
It didn’t go in.
Ward’s tournament to forget
Maddison, Faes… and Danny Ward, too. At time it felt like there was a vendetta against the most in-form Leicester players, particularly when forgotten man Mendy was racking up minutes for Senegal.
Wales went with Nottingham Forest’s reserve goalkeeper ahead of the clean sheet maestro himself. They were left to rue that decision when Wayne Hennessey goose-stepped his way out of his penalty area and straight down the tunnel.
Ward may have preferred to stay on the bench with the benefit of hindsight as that was the moment it all went south for Wales at the World Cup. He couldn’t do much about the two late Iranian goals that effectively ended his nation’s involvement. He didn’t have the best game against England. And suddenly, after 64 long years, it was all over.
Interestingly, it turns out we were offered Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic in the summer. Albeit alongside a number of other Premier League clubs.
While Ward’s upturn in form doesn’t make the decision to pass on Livakovic a disaster (yet), I wonder what the decision-makers at the club have been thinking while watching his stellar displays over the past few weeks. Given Ward’s notoriously fragile confidence, is it going to be a topic we return to in the new year?
He’s our centre back
Dan the man has performed many roles for Leicester. Amartey has been injured man, utility man, backup man - but through most of this time, he’s been a relatively consistent performer for Ghana and given he’s recently morphed into a top class Premier League centre-back as well, it was no surprise he did well at this World Cup too.
Leicester didn’t have many starters. Amartey gave many of us a reason to want Ghana to progress further, and we enjoyed a magic moment or two from them.
Time for captain Tim?
A solid tournament for Timothy Castagne, who was one of Belgium’s few bright spots in an otherwise demoralising couple of weeks. At 27, he’s in his prime now and will presumably be lining up alongside Wout Faes for years to come in at least one team - and maybe two.
Belgium’s early exit suited Leicester for many reasons, but particularly - in Castagne’s case - because of James Justin’s unavailability.
The World Cup also gave the wing back wizard another crash course on crisis management. When the wheels came off on Filbert Way earlier this season, the PR team turned to Castagne to bring some priceless self-reflection and honesty to the post-game interviews.
In Qatar, as rumours swirled about a dressing room bust-up between Kevin De Bruyne and Jan Vertonghen, Castagne’s recent experience in the middle of unmitigated disasters saw him sent out on damage limitation duty.
“I don’t think we should be focusing on one or two players who might not have been playing to the best of their ability. We’re all in it together. We all know we can play better. I just think we played badly.”
Right out of the Seagrave playbook. There might be an armband vacancy in a few months time, is it time for Captain Tim?
Former Foxes
There were four former Foxes involved in the tournament.
Andrej Kramaric was his usual self, playing just well enough to make a few people wonder if it was a mistake to let him go all those years ago (and what did we achieve in the meantime anyway?)
Harry Maguire was in Leicester mode (reasonable but still ending up conceding a headed goal to the man he was marking, making him seem worth less than £85million) rather than Manchester United mode (mediocre, catastrophic, benched - repeat til bored).
The real villain in the Harry Kane scenario was the member of the England backroom staff who failed to run round and put a Kasper Schmeichel mask on Hugo Lloris ahead of that second penalty.
And then there was Schmeichel himself - and it still felt surreal watching him in Denmark’s goal without wanting him to do well quite as much as before. But he still feels like one of ours.
Through adversity to St. George’s Park?
Following England’s humiliating failure/unfortunate defeat to the world champions after missing a penalty in the 87th minute*, Gareth Southgate refused to commit himself to leading England into the 2024 Euros. The wave of speculation about his successor has already started lapping around our feet.
Enter the unimpeachable Daily Star: “FA bosses will consider making Brendan Rodgers the next England boss if Gareth Southgate decides to quit.”
The Mirror: “Leicester boss Rodgers is a top candidate should Southgate decide to walk away from his post.”
The Guardian: “In admittedly a thin field, there is one outstanding candidate. Right place, right time, once more for Rodgers.”
If the England job does come up, there aren’t many candidates to get the heart racing. The marriage between fans and the manager at Leicester is uneasy at best. Could this the perfect opportunity for a dignified divorce?
*delete as appropriate
Chin up, Rodders
We’ll end on a positive, because we reserve a special smile for Rodri’s failures against supposedly weaker clubs or nations.
Let’s remind ourselves of his words after Leicester hit five lucky goals at the Etihad…
‘Football has not been fair with us. We deserved many things. We played, we tried. Only with a few things they come here, do two or three things and beat us. I don't know if it's our fault or their strength.
‘For me, the learning from this match is to score one goal then do a hundred passes at the back - that's it, then game over. But we try and go for the second, the third, that makes us lose balls and concede.
‘For me, they're lucky. With two or three things they win this game. It's okay and we have to congratulate them, but it's not the way I like to play.’
And after Morocco’s magnificent win over Spain?
‘Morocco offered absolutely nothing, without disrespecting them. In the game, they did nothing.
‘They just waited for the counters. They stayed behind and tried to counter us.’
There’s more than one way to play football, Rodders.
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Who should the new #LCFC manager be? No shouts for Martin O'Neill. But it was a chance for Jordan @BSLBPodcast to… https://t.co/gUna32lvth -
RT @sj_b90: @TheFosseWay @beckytLCFC @IainW198 @BSLBPodcast @db_writing Play Madders behind Kele Start Ricardo RB WIN GAMES
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RT @MeetTheCritics: @TheFosseWay @beckytLCFC @IainW198 @BSLBPodcast @db_writing 1. Play Maddison centrally and Ricardo right side 2. P… https://t.co/GSqWYScsqf
