Leicester City Fan View: Torn over whether to stick with struggling Claudio Ranieri

Leicester fans won’t be the only ones keen to ignore the Premier League table this weekend. Yet another loss, this time in the hands of Southampton, leaves the Foxes just five points clear of the relegation zone. It’s a fragile cushion and it’s tough to envisage where the next win will come from. The next league fixture is away to one of the best home sides, Burnley, followed by Manchester United at home and Swansea away. Before that is Derby away in the FA Cup and Steve McClaren’s side will relish that battle right now.

It’s difficult to know where to begin after such an unwatchable, dismal display. Travelling fans have long suffered watching Leicester on the road, long before this win-less away campaign, and should be praised for largely singing throughout, but where 5am alarms are involved, it’ll feel particularly unrewarding for the effort. As not for the first time this season, the Foxes were virtually out of the game before the half-time whistle had been blown.

It was a combination of incredibly poor defending and the wrong formation. Bizarrely, having struggled to get any kind of width away at Middlesbrough, which also opened us defensively, we lined up with what looked like a similar shape and a similarly low number of wingers. Southampton are a team who have attacking-minded fullbacks, who unsurprisingly found quite a bit of joy when attacking our fullbacks in turn. Danny Simpson found himself unfairly isolated a lot, no real cover ahead of him and while Nampalys Mendy appeared to be dropping in to help Christian Fuchs on the left, it still wasn’t helping us shut out the home side. Their first goal had been coming since virtually the kick-off, making for nerve-wracking watching, again, for Leicester fans as both wings were utilised in the making of it.

A 3-0 scoreline flattered Leicester City. Dusan Tadic’s penalty sealed the comfortable victory for a Southampton who, had they taken all of their chances, could have made it a much worse afternoon for Claudio Ranieri’s side. The Foxes had few chances on goal themselves, Fraser Forster enjoying a relatively quiet afternoon. Yet again Jamie Vardy found himself starved of the ball and while Demarai Gray enjoyed some runs into the box and shots, none of it came close to threatening a goal. Almost six months in and we’re no closer to solving our creative issues. That’s what felt most deflating, even at 1-0, you felt like the game was past us as we didn’t look like we’d score.

As far as team displays go, it was particularly uninspiring and lifeless. Perhaps it was down to the tactics and the formations, but many looked clueless and small mistake after small mistake encapsulated our season so far. Even Kasper Schmeichel, arguably one of the players who looked most interested today, will kick himself for several things, notably that he might have been able to save the first and for his distribution. For the second game in a row though, few come out of it looking great. Wes Morgan and Fuchs both endured one of their worst performances for us, too easily and too often beaten in pace by their opponents and slipping up. At times, you could genuinely have been fooled into thinking we wanted to concede another goal, so ridiculous were some of the errors.

Inevitably, there are calls for Ranieri to be sacked. This is understandable to an extent, but not as black and white a decision as some would like it to be. Personally, I feel very conflicted but I’ve rarely called for a manager’s head, particularly not mid-season and he’s the kind of manager you do root for and hope that they will turn it around. Sacking him would also feel like the equivalent of having to upset your grandfather, who means well and doesn’t want things to have turned out this way. It’s tough because we already know the potential he has in managing this club. What he achieved with this club and squad in his first twelve months does not excuse the current situation, but makes it more frustrating because those same players are not performing for him in the same way.

The Italian must take his share of the blame though for the tactics he’s dabbled with and for not being able to get a response out of them. He’s previously been professional enough to stand by his players in press conferences, though hopefully not quite so polite privately, but was more candidate post-match, admitting mistakes. Whether that and his willingness to make it work will keep him in the job for longer remains to be seen. It’s a big call for our owners either way. You also have to also say that were he to depart, the current list of available managers isn’t a hugely exciting one.

Ranieri talked of returning to basics, to a way of players our squad is familiar with and can execute. We’re looking dangerously like a side in free-fall, devoid of confidence and in dire need of something to change. What we need to see the most is some fight, some determination from the players. There are some big tests coming up and if they want to get the fans back on-board, we need to see them playing as a team again.