When lower clubs need money or are threatening the  top six Premier League clubs (Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea),  a sneaky action  is taken  mainly by the big six and they will buy players from  the other clubs to destabilise their ability to threaten their place in the hierarchy.  The shock of Leicester City winning the Premier League in 2015-16 caused the top six clubs to reinforce this policy and City was one club targeted with offers for players to leave.

Take a look at how this affected Leicester City,  we have lost so many good players and the club are still expected to compete. Look at the many players that have left some to just sit on the bench at other clubs. Take for instance Mahrez a certain starter at City on any match day, but leaves for Manchester City and plays only about 50% of games, most as a sub. I fancy Danny Drinkwater was not impressed with how his move to Chelsea turned out? So it is no surprise that City bounce up and down the Premier league or Championship leagues, we get a good team, sell all the good players then us supporters complain when we get relegated.

Last year we followed the same pattern, we sold good players like Harvey Barnes (Newcastle sub), Maddison (Spurs) and Youri Tilemans (used as a sub at Aston Villa). Kasper Schmeichel had already left to join the subs bench at Club Nice, so what do we do? We sack the manager Brendan Rogers; yes let’s take away his best players watch the team struggle and then blame the manager. after poor Dean Smith and Craig Shakespeare were given an impossible job of trying to rescue a team full of players planning to leave and fail.

We bring in a new manager, Enzo Maresca,

Rogers had tried to change the way we were playing by playing out from the back four which pleased nobody. In comes Enzo with City the seventh highest wage bill in all leagues so we still had some good players, and applies the same tactics.

After relegation the good players have fled bur Enzo want to play playing out the back four. Watching City play last season was like waiting for teeth to be slowly pulled out with pliers. Thankfully the opposition was not up to the standard that we will have in the coming season and we prevailed to win promotion back to the Premier League. Although for many that know the history of Leicester City we seem to do well to start the season then fall away in the latter stages. See my blurb on a history of Leicester City. Up to the 2000’s.  https://www.soccercoachinghandbook.net/Leicester/index_city.html

For us that watched City win the league in 2015-16 with the ball to back line straight to Danny or N'Golo Kanté and ball over the heads of defenders for Mahrez and Vardy to sprint onto, or Albrighton the best crosser of a soccer ball two touches then ball into the penalty area, food and drink for Vardy. Brilliant to watch and exciting stuff, I was lucky enough to get to one of the games whilst on a world tour in 2016. I was in Paris when I got an invite to enjoy the Directors lounge and then watch City play West Ham. On the Saturday train Paris to London up to City for the weekend and then back to Paris after the game on Sunday, before returning to Australia. City drew 2:2 Vardy got sent off but not before a typical over the top sprint and goal. What a great atmosphere. I even got a pint of Vardy’s Volley from my mates brewery pub in Leicester.

So now Enzo has gone and taken Dewsbury Hall with him. So we look forward to another year without the playing quality we should deserve. I do not know what method Steve Cooper will employ but I feel if we try playing out from the back four in the Premier League we will get ambushed and struggle. I believe we should try and use the tactics of 2015-16 and see if we can get the strikers running onto the ball we still have Vardy so he can show the boys what to do and we have some useful wingers, so I am looking forward to the coming season and hope and pray we drop the boring back four idea.

Take a look at that great team in 2015-16 https://www.soccercoachinghandbook.net/Leicester/index_city15-16.html

Peter Faulks

Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Christian Fuchs, Wes Morgan

Robert Huth, Morgan, Marc Albrighton, Danny Drinkwater, N'Golo Kanté, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy  Leonardo Ulloa

Daniel Amartey Demarai Gray

Ben Chilwell, Kante Harry Maguire, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Kelechi Iheanacho Harvey Barnes,

Dennis Praet  Shinji Okazaki

Marc Albrighton

First game of the season, can always be a strange event, if teams sit back and let the opposition play,  you will always put yourself under pressure and this was the case with City, the first 35 minutes were terrible we gave them too much respect. Once they realised that Spurs could be contained and to some degree we were lucky because of poor finishing and some solid defending, Hermansen  is a quality keeper so we will definitely need him throughout the year and he is a key to our survival.

But second half we started to play,  I liked  Buonanotte and both fullbacks started to move forward in particular Kristiansen had a good game and I would like to see him play with Mavididi ahead of him. The importance of Jamie Vardy in the team cannot be understated he adds the fire to the team and makes us tick. However I believe we should retain Tom Carrol, he is young and will become a good striker.

The second half we played with more confidence and looked like a team worthy of being in the Premier League and as you say, we could have won it with a great move and Vardy just missing then Ndidi with a soft header but in the end you could say a draw was OK, but the injury delay killed our momentum and did not help us at that time.

With  Oliver Skipp coming into midfield (we should not play Soumaré) but our midfield should look more balanced with Skipp in it, so a good purchase I think. Ndidi is a shadow of what he was a few seasons ago, so we need some strength in midfield.

If we go into games thinking we deserve to be there and play positive soccer then I see us doing quite well. Looking at all the games there are several weak teams that we should beat so I am feeling quite positive. See how we go against Fulham and Villa but if we don’t get penalised lost points we will be middle table or just above.