Listening to Russell Martin Tuesday, being approached by a fan and giving his honest opinion on the situation, he should be more like that in the interviews and press conferences. Great stuff and fun to listen to.
He said accactly what he ment and made it clear he did not agree with the fan as he talked about creating chances and building from the back. If you have some sort of understanding of football, you will understand that Russell Martin is 100% correct.
The fact that players are missing opportunities in front of goal, has nothing to do with style of play. The problem at the moment is not Russell Martin, his style of play, works well, but he need a bit more time, having shuffled the squad around like a man selling and buying cars.
The arrival of Will Smallbone talks ambition and hopefully injuries will not stop the progress for the former Southampton midfielder, with 15 caps for Ireland. Conor Chaplin has not been the hit we had hoped for, having severe fitnes challenges and not yet been involved in league football for Leicester this season.
Every football fan is eager to see his team win. Leicester is expected to win every game in League One, so far that has not happened and a struggle to get everything correct against physical strong teams. What has happened in certain games this season, is not acceptable, but instead of going on and give Russell Martin abuse, please stay behind him, even if Leicester is struggling this season.
Watching Liam Cullen played the number 10 role for Wales vs. Norway, shows how far Leicester are from getting this correctly, hardly giving Cullen a chance to play in a role he did with perfection and showing he can handle top class opposition, playing against the captain of Arsenal, as well as having controll against two other midfielders from Fulham and Benfica.
This is the major question for Russell Martin, how to compose his team and get the best out of his line-up. The squad is still having challenges as it looks a bit unbalanced with players such as Caleb Okoli, Woyo Coulibaly and Harry Souttar who are all targets for clubs, either abroad or higher in the league hiararchy.
A Leicester fan confronted Russel Martin after last nights loss to Stevenage and Martin was having absolutely none of it… 🤯
— Football Away Days (@AwayDaysFB) October 7, 2026
'You got promoted with Maresca and you've been shit ever since'
How on earth does a manager talk about his football club like that 😅😅…
Another massive talking point is the fact that players in this set up is far from comfortable playing in this style and system, having played under managers who are more hybrid or pragmatic, but still Emil Riis will hopefully continue scoring goals.
Russell Martin’s influence on the attack is unclear, but we think the crosses come in too late, partly due to the few players in front of the goal. The fact that Leicester are creating chances is a plus, but the lack of bodies in the penalty area in each attack, makes it difficult to score. At least five to six players should be involved, two to three of them should be hunting after a rebound or being playable inside their. Often you see a lot of teams depending on that lonely striker in a four three three build up, and it becomes difficult to act. We have seen especially Admir Bristric this season being locked in, with little or not enough support.
Often, moving Sammy Braybrooke to play as an attacking midfielder creates awkward situations for him. This isn’t his natural position, as we have seen Russell Martin getting frustrating and shouts out his orders. Leicester have three other players who are more natural in this role, Kamari Doyle, Liam Cullen and Will Alves. Louis Page is a typical box to box midifelder, but strangely given either the offensive role or the defensive role in midfield.
Russell Martin is still searching for the right formula. With many new players in the squad, it will take time. Hopefully, he will establish a successful rotation policy, as he needs at least 16 to 18 players rotating with so many games being played through a season.
To use the game vs. Stevenage as a benchmark will be totally wrong, fielding a team of players that will not feature much in the league, but still the possession was not used to any advantage at all, and then a good question is, how long do we have to wait for this approach to be a way forward.
When Leicester won the Premier League and reached the quarter final of Champions League, they never played this type of football, but had a much more direct and using counter attack as a weapon. To be able to use a break in the game to your advantage is the most powerfull tool in the toolbox, so start using it.
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