Leicester City Fan View: Robert Huth is back in form for the Foxes; just how much will he be missed against Atletico?

Robert Huth was impressive against Atletico Madrid midweek and it was a vintage performance from him against Crystal Palace. He was everywhere for Leicester City, even scoring the Foxes opening goal from a powerful Christian Fuchs throw-in. Had it not have been for his vital blocks, tackles and headers; Leicester might have conceded more. Had it also not have been for his last ditch clearance late on, it might have three points dropped, not just two.

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I’ll admit that I had my doubts about the German earlier in the season. Too many times, both he and Wes Morgan looked like players who’d never met, shadows of themselves from last year. Admittedly, we expected last season was probably their best season ever and the exact same form wasn’t expected to be replicated, but both looked slow and completely off the pace. As a collective defence, Kasper Schmeichel aside, we weren’t good enough for the first half of the season. A return to basics and the tactics we’re comfortable with have seen Huth, and Morgan prior to his injury, look back to themselves again. Huth in particular has looked back to his best over the last couple of weeks, after some tough weeks early into the campaign.

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Against Crystal Palace, he wasn’t tasked with an easy forward to mark either; Christian Benteke the key threat for the home side. Unlike against Everton, when Romelu Lukaku dropped more to the left, Benteke stayed central and forward. Leicester played a patient game with him, unable to beat him to the first ball, headers, we largely ensured that we got the second one. With the exception of Benteke’s goal, it looked like he was climbing all over Benalouane to get to the ball, but he out jumped everybody else. Huth was key in executing that plan for us though and the two goals conceded say very little about his own individual performance. Football can be harsh like that and this weekend, despite how dominant the towering German was, we only came away from Selhurst Park with a point, having let a 2-0 lead slide. Our composure in finishing the job may have left something to be desired, but Huth deserves to be the Foxes man of the match and to be duly praised.

It was inevitable that the club’s naive approach to not strengthening our back-line in the summer or January, most likely due to the cost of our targets, would come back to haunt us. Perhaps we’re lucky that it’s taken until April to really do so, Morgan and Huth aren’t getting any younger either. That and us finally being able to integrate Yohan Benalouane into the starting line-up, ensuring that even with Wes Morgan’s injury, we haven’t struggled too much. On Tuesday night though, we face a prospect we’re very inexperienced with lately; that we may line up with both Huth and Morgan absent from our starting line-up.

With Huth unable to stay out of the referee’s book in Madrid, he’ll have to watch from the stands as Leicester try to overturn a 1-0 deficit. Even if Craig Shakespeare’s backroom staff perform a miracle to get Morgan onto the pitch, the reality is that it’ll be a less than 100% ready version. While Huth has recaptured his incredible form from last season, it’s incredibly frustrating that we go into one of the biggest games of our history, without him.

While an argument could be made for having started Daniel Amartey instead of Huth against Crystal Palace, after all, he may be a forced option on Tuesday; it’s clear that Shakespeare and the team aren’t keen on this. Perhaps it’s what they’ve seen in training or previously, the midfielder having only played there for Ghana in the AfCoN, a hugely different type of game than what we can expect against Atletico. Leicester knew playing Huth this weekend was a must, although we had a primary aim to avoid any other defensive injuries, we really have no other choice when Morgan simply isn’t ready. This didn’t go entirely to plan though. Benalouane limped off in the final quarter, and having already used all three substitutes, Danny Simpson had to stay on having taken a knock in a clash with Andros Townsend.

With Marcin Wasilewski not registered in the Champions League squad, there wasn’t much point in using him in London either. There is one other option that’s been less discussed. Depending on opinion, we either tested that today, or were just left with no other option, when we moved Christian Fuchs in alongside Robert Huth with Ben Chilwell taking over at left-back. Presuming Benalouane recovers for Tuesday, that’s another potential pairing, though probably not a preferred one. Fuchs will still provide the same work rate, but he’s best on the left where he can still get forward and provide us with those deadly long-range throws that we so effectively put to use against Crystal Palace.

The Foxes will sweat on the status of both defenders, though there’s a further two players whose fitness will also cause concerns. Andy King started against Crystal Palace having come on at half-time against Atletico to play an important role in the first leg. He was taken off and seen with an ice pack on his foot, any such lasting niggle would further reduce our central midfield options with Nampalys Mendy most likely floating around in injury nowhere land right now.

Then there’s Islam Slimani. You can only wonder how differently his first season in the Premier League may have gone had he not suffered even half of the injuries he’s had. He was absent from the weekend’s squad having picked up a knock in training. Hopefully that one is just precautionary as he’d provide a valuable, alternative option for our Champions League second leg.

Atletico rested their key men ahead of our second leg decider over in La Liga’s weekend games; while Craig Shakespeare’s side only truly rested Danny Drinkwater. Instead, we’ll be relying on sports science, the cryo-therapy chambers, to work their magic. Leicester still believe that we can pull off this difficult challenge and surprise Atletico Madrid at the King Power on Tuesday night. Few games have got Foxes fans feeling so excited with over forty-eight hours still to go.

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