Still no confirmations regarding a new permanent Leicester manager. New men are mentioned and today Dean Smith is talked up as a potential candidate. Smith (54) is in no way a bad candidate and would possibly be interested in this position. He was not given the chance to take Leicester back up, when he only had 10 games to save the club from relegation a few years back.
Dean Smith is among those having a transitional approach to win games instead of being fanatic about a certain pattern of play as the main factor for him is the results. Possession orientated managers might not be the ideal when you are experiencing crisis.
Looking at the candidates talked up, you have a number of different styles among them. We have set them all up in different categories and how we rate them.
We have splitted them up in four different categories. Ultra possession, possession, transitional and counter attacking. There are also different styles among managers in how they believe players themselves should act more on instict than style. This is often in the offensive part of the game, some believe players should have full freedom, others are more restricted to pattern
Kingy reflects on #BIRLEI 💭
— Leicester City (@LCFC) February 8, 2026
- Ultra Possession
- Russell Martin, Rangers (70%)
- Possession
- Enzo Maresca, Chelsea (55%)
- Transitional
- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Besiktas (57%)
- Dean Smith, Charlotte (44%)
- Gus Poyet, Jeonbuk (54%)
- Chris Wilder, Sheffield United (54%)
- Robbie Savage, Forest Green Rovers (47%)
- Counter Attacking
- Michael Skubala, Lincoln (42 %)
- Gary Rowett, Oxford (36%)
- Vitor Pereira, Wolves (48%)
- Chris Coleman, Leuven (26%)
These are the top candidates at the moment, with avarage ball possession at their recent club, in brackets. We are not certain that ball possession alone will be a criteria for a manager appointment, but it indicates something about how a manager can be judged on style.
We do not have any special favourites in this race. The only thing is to avoid Russell Martin. He is by the bookies seen as a favourite, but his style of play, with no safety net and a plan B, should be avoided everyday of the week. He needs quality players and a team more clever than what Leicester have at the moment.
Lincoln manager Michael Skubala is almost obsessed with set piece build up’s. He has a clear view on that and possibly the best among these candidates to bring such knowledge to the players as well as being good to give them advice how to carry it out.
Will be interesting to see how Leicester will take their next step in the chase for a new manager.
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