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The Sun printed a story about owners and their worry of unrest at the training ground, coming from the local vocal, Rob Tanner, the head Leicester City journalist at Mercury, saying this is all strange as owners never talk much to the media
Tanner describes the situation as odd, believing that all that comes from the owners at Leicester City is written in the matchday program and besides that none or very few public announcements are done.
To just fabricate a story about unrest looks odd, and why Tanner just dismiss everything as speculations is a surprise. The reason we just don’t believe this as just a fabricated story is the fact that often such rumors are coming from somewhere and we all know that owners speak to staff and players at times, and that they are surely getting their reports.
Tcf is not involved in the day to day plans of Claude Puel, have no idea of what the owners are thinking or doing and have no relations to any of the players at the club, so this talk is based on what we read between the lines, what we feel is expressed and the talk of Puel himself and his communication.
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The stats and numbers build up around Puel’s performances looks good and his fasit so far is, from last season: 9th in the Premier League, quarter finals in both cups, this season: 10th in the Premier League, still in the EFL Cup and surely not a record for sacking a manager at Leicester City.
The problem for Puel is his home record over the last games, and the end to last season, which was very poor. Goals conceded this term looks totally unnecessary. Puel have a defense far from being a finished article and he looks uncertain about the use of the trio Marc Albrighton, James Maddison and Kelechi Ihenacho, who are switched between positions or left on the bench.
Fans and also local vocal, Rob Tanner, seems to be uncertain about what type of system Leicester City are playing from time to time. To set the record straight, this team is not playing with three defenders in the back and they are still a 4-4-1-1 team, despite being seen as a 4-2-3-1, which it could be, if you like it to be, but that is surely not the case since both flanks are going deeper and not staying up alongside Iheanacho or Maddison in that role behind the top forward. Describing the back four as a back three is also strange, since Amartey and Pereira both looks very much playing to the right, and Chilwell, is a left back and not a left flank, but of course going forward a lot. Morgan or Evans together with Maguire is the two in center, surely a back four. Pereira has been pushed forward and then Mark Albrighton has been moved to the bench.
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All credit to Puel for his awakening of Papy Mendy. The central midfield is working fine. Jamie Vardy has been accompanied by Kelechi Iheanacho or James Maddison in those two roles up front.
See that many websites such as Sky Sports and Soccerway describes Leicester City as playing 4-2-3-1, but that is not the case, they are playing 4-4-1-1, or even 4-4-2 when playing Iheanacho in the team alongside Jamie Vardy. You can argue and discuss this back and forward, but a fact is that when using different type of players you get different kinds of movement, and with Maddison and Iheanacho, it’s like salt and pepper, surely a big difference, but both types needed to balance it right.
Leicester is in transformation, but Puel cannot use Premier League as an arena for experiments and testing, not for long. If he cannot win games, no one will listen to his talk, since football is very simple and fans are going to a game to see their team win, or at least get a draw against a good opponent, losing will always be a dissappointment who ever you play.
If you see a manager after a win, he smiles and looks just like the fan, happy, when losing you get all the complains and explanations about what went wrong and as we all know, winning is everything, you don’t have to explain or complain.
We don’t believe the local vocal, Rob Tanner, in his dismissal of the unrest. We do believe Tanner in his belief that the owners are still backing Claude Puel. Tcf is still in favor of Puel, as Tanner is. As Tanner also says, tired of Leicester City sacking managers. We believe as long as Leicester are in the top half of the table, Puel is fine, so we agree with Tanner in most of his sayings.
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But to say that The Sun have no clue of what the owners might think, is a bit out of line, since why should the national press use space on Leicester City, when there are more and other stories to write about that surely will be of much more interest among football fans and readers in the UK, than using space on a club from a city of no real interest for others than their own people.
The unrest might be entitled to the fact that there are too many players currently on wait to be shipped out, having fantastic contracts at the club that they just would like to see their payments of, and surely no club can give those players the same amount of money as they receive at the moment.
Discipline is also something we would address as a possible reason for the unrest, as we have seen in the past at the club, during the Thai owners reign, with the Pearson affair, Mahrez going on strike and Simpson’s problems in the start of his days at the club. Jamie Vardy also had a difficult time after joining the club, not being able to adapt to the professional lifestyle. As described openly club owners directly dealt with Vardy themselves, and got him on the right track.
Other worries that Puel has been describing himself is the language barrier for newly signed Caglar Soyuncu who has missed his chance to make a first team debut due to the fact that he cannot communicate with other players, not speaking English. That is of course of great worry when used £19 million on a player, who is left out of a team due to not talking a certain language.
Vicente Iborra has said, in an earlier interview, that he had less or no contact with other players besides the training and during games, so surely the mix of the squad, previous episodes and the fact that Puel is himself using an interpreter would surely not be ideal.
The fact that Puel’s decided to replace his closest ally from last season, English speaking assistant manager Michael Appleton, and replacing him with a new French assistant who has not yet given an interview in English, probably also gives you a bit of a challenge in your communication and how you are getting your ideas on board. Reasons enough to see unrest, and adding it all up you might have a picture not ideal for moving a club forward.
