Premier League crisis club of the week: Leicester City
Another week of Premier League football have delved more clubs into crisis.
This week, we're singling out a Leicester who look devoid of, well, anything remotely good in recent times.
Here's why Brendan Rodgers' team are in crisis:
What's the crisis?
The crisis is the following run of results:
- 19 February: Manchester United 3-0 Leicester
- 25 February: Leicester 0-1 Arsenal
- 28 February: Leicester 1-2 Blackburn Rovers
- 4 March: Southampton 1-0 Leicester
- 11 March: Leicester 1-3 Chelsea
Fives defeats on the bounce in all competitions which has led to the Foxes being knocked out of the FA Cup and moving down to 16th in the Premier League table - level on points with Bournemouth, who are in the relegation zone.
It's bad.
It's really, really bad.
Why are they in crisis?
In that run of five defeats on the bounce, Brendan Rodgers utilised three different formations - all of which were horrifically ineffective.
One of the key reasons behind Rodgers' tinkering has been the lack of consistency shown from his players. One week Harvey Barnes looks like Franck Ribery 2.0, the next he looks like he should be playing for Gosport Borough FC. One week Wout Faes looks like Virgil van Dijk 2.0, the next he scores two own goals and gets sent off.
It's a massive problem for this Leicester team. In a relegation dogfight teams need players they can consistently rely upon to put in decent performances, at the moment the Foxes don't have enough of those players.
What can they do to rectify it?
To be honest, there's no easy fix for this.
Leicester fans made their thoughts regarding Rodgers very clear during the defeat to Chelsea, but sacking the manager probably isn't the answer to the club's current crisis.
Put simply, who would replace Rodgers this point in the season? A certain man who could probably tighten the Foxes up defensively is now at Everton, and we'd be surprised if a manager like Ange Postecoglou would leave Celtic this late in the season when on the brink of another league title.
Rodgers simply has to work out a tactical set-up that can get more out of the players at his disposal, while also masking their flaws too. It'll be difficult.