Talking points from Leicester City’s 4-1 defeat to QPR, looking at their inconsistency, their crumbling starts, the zapped spirits, potential transfers, and more
It’s the nature of the Championship that every side is inconsistent to a degree. It’s why the table is always so tight.
But Leicester City are more erratic than most. They’re yet to win three games in a row this season. A run of 10 points from a possible 12, something they were aiming for at QPR, has proven beyond them so far.
Inconsistency is clearly an issue and it’s a big one, simply because it can be indecipherable.
When a manager is trying to correct a team’s woes, they will be searching for patterns and persistent problems. But what if the team simply doesn’t turn up? How do you even begin to explain what happened in the first half at Loftus Road?
City arrived in the capital on the back of their best win of the season, producing a strong performance against an in-form promotion chaser in Ipswich. Marti Cifuentes fielded the same starting line-up, one that had a week to recover and prepare.
Every fan would surely have chosen the same side. Everybody associated with the club must have had a degree of confidence of claiming a result.
And then they produce that first-half display. They lacked commitment in defence, composure on the ball, and threat in the final third. QPR were so much more up for it, so much more cohesive as a unit.
Cifuentes and captain Ricardo Pereira both attributed the woes to a lack of consistency, but that does not get to the nub of any problem. How do you correct inconsistency? What do you do on the training ground to fix it? It feels like an unsolvable problem.
But it’s one that Cifuentes needs to get to the bottom of. Otherwise every time City move within a win of the play-off spots, it’s going to be a false dawn and they’re going to end up dropping into the bottom half again.
Fragility accusations will continue over capitulations
Nothing sums up City’s inconsistency more than the first halves of their last six matches: losing 3-0, losing 3-0, winning 3-0, winning 2-0, winning 2-0, losing 4-0. It’s a mad run.
Trailing by at least three goals at half-time in three of the last six matches is clearly unacceptable. City are conceding one and then crumbling, just as they did in the latter half of last season.
Is it fragility? Can they not cope with the setbacks of going behind? Cifuentes thinks not, pointing to times when his side have responded well.
It’s easy to say that just looking at those games, but we have managed to turn results,” he said when City’s potential fragility was put to him. “Some games we have managed to turn negative results against us.”
He’s right to a degree. City have picked up eight points from matches in which they’ve conceded the first goal. Only three sides in the division have a better record than that.
But most of their recoveries were in the opening stages of the season. Of the last seven times City have conceded first, they’ve lost six. Only at Norwich did they turn the game around.
Against Sheffield United and Hull, there were attempted comebacks but they gave themselves too much to do. Against Millwall, Blackburn, Southampton and QPR, it felt like there was a meek acceptance of defeat.
If they continue to capitulate the moment they concede once, accusations of a fragile mentality will also continue.
Two days wipe out Christmas goodwill
Such a woeful defeat also zaps the improved spirits built up over the past fortnight.
It felt like City were on the right track with how their December fixtures had panned out. But the victory over Ipswich will now be reframed.
City were very good against the Tractor Boys, but when you follow it up with a 4-1 loss, it gets viewed through a different lens, one where they were lucky and reliant on out-of-this-world goals. The strong performance gets forgotten.
Even a battling defeat at Loftus Road may have seen the improved mood remain intact. But now it’s been obliterated.
But the club themselves haven’t helped the situation. The news that City staff would not be paid before Christmas as previously indicated, and that they received only a few hours’ notice of such a change, has left a sour taste in fans’ mouths.
How can they get behind and show support for a club that treats its employees so poorly. There’s been no explanation as to why such short notice was given to staff, nor why the payrolls had to be aligned with those at King Power. It’s mismanagement of the highest order.
In the space of two days on and off the field, City have managed to whittle away all of the Christmas cheer. There will unlikely be a merry pre-match atmosphere at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day.
Cifuentes decisions point to double exit
Cifuentes described the first-half performance as “unacceptable” and yet he didn’t make any half-time changes.
Perhaps it was a case that everybody was so bad that there were no standout individuals to replace. It didn’t feel like any player was especially worse than any other.
Perhaps it was also a case that Cifuentes didn’t feel he had the options to change the game. Aaron Ramsey and Jeremy Monga would be in the bracket of players who can swing the momentum of a match, but on their returns from injury, maybe they were only good for the 25 minutes they played.
It certainly does not bode well for Wout Faes that when substituting Jannik Vestergaard, who was involved in a clash in the heads in the first half, Cifuentes opted to drop Oliver Skipp back rather than bring on the Belgian.
It does not bode well for Julian Carranza either. Even with Patson Daka missing, the Argentinian went an eighth game without featuring, with Silko Thomas preferred to play up front for the first time since pre-season. If there’s a cheap break clause in his loan contract, it would be doubtful that Carranza lasts at City beyond the end of January.
It also strengthens the case for Michail Antonio’s arrival. The positivity with which Cifuentes has spoken about him suggests it’s just a matter of ironing out contract details to get him through the door.
Anything still possible as City near midway point
In the Premier League, a team’s position at Christmas almost certainly indicates the section of the table they will be competing in come the climax to the campaign.
But it’s simply not the case in the Championship. City sit 13th, right in mid-table, but their season could yet go either way.
A significant points deduction would drop them into the thick of battle towards the bottom. A good run could catapult them into the play-offs. Three seasons ago, Luton were 15th at Christmas and yet ended up with promotion.
Right now, you don’t know what you’re going to get from City during the 90 minutes, and you don’t know what they’re going to be fighting for at the end of the season.
