If you needed yet another sign of how bad things have got at Leicester City, how about the sense that a 3-1 defeat and cup exit at the hands of a team against whom we’d previously gone eight unbeaten felt strangely positive.
That’s how subterranean the expectations of Leicester fans were before the trip to Portman Road to face a much-changed Ipswich side in the League Cup.
Sadly, despite the positives, lots of question marks remain over this side and this season and now there is less than a week for the club to generate as many answers as possible.
The biggest of those question marks surround the centre-back position, which was highlighted by Russell Martin selecting a back four of four full-backs for his fourth competitive game in charge. Woyo Coulibaly made a sensational return from oblivion to start at right-back with Christian McFarlane making his debut on the other flank, leaving a centre-back pairing that made you look twice: Bade Aluko and Luke Thomas.
Oliver Skipp’s suspension meant a start for Louis Page in the holding midfield role with Sammy Braybrooke joined by another debutant, and Portman Road favourite, in Conor Chaplin. The front three saw two more changes: Brighton loanees Tommy Watson and Harry Howell aiming to supply Admir Bristric.
This created both a swell of positivity over the lack of senior players in the lineup after the disastrous display against Burton and an acceptance that we would almost certainly be heading out of the competition out of sheer naivety at some stage over the ninety minutes.
And that’s how things played out. The eleven players that began the match for Leicester had started 159 league games for the club, with Thomas (101) and Jakub Stolarczyk (48) accounting for so many of those that the remaining 9 boasted just 10 between them.
That might have gone some way toward explaining the 100-yard stares from those picked out as the Sky cameras panned slowly around the away end prior to kick-off.
Thirty seconds into the game, those same faces might have been set to panic mode as Leicester, with painful predictability, gave the ball away trying to play out from the back and offered up a shot to Chuba Akpom. The effort went three yards wide across goal but the warning was there.
Yet it only took another sixty seconds for Leicester to be presented with a chance at the other end in similar fashion. This time it was Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton who gifted the ball to Tommy Watson only for the resulting shot to be fired wildly off-target.
Ipswich, having clearly devoted a few minutes to watching Russell Martin teams, Leicester City teams and Russell Martin’s Leicester City team in preparation, pressed high and hassled the young Foxes back line.
Surprisingly, Leicester dealt with the pressure extremely well after that initial scare and enjoyed the best spell of the game in the opening half hour or so. Page was instrumental to this, receiving the ball in tight spaces and managing to manoeuvre it upfield to players in space. Braybrooke and Chaplin also played their midfield roles well and Harry Howell was the pick of the front three, protecting the ball well despite close marking and running with it to good effect.
The best Leicester chance came when McFarlane made an excellent run from left-back and was played in by Page. McFarlane’s attempted dink over Walton hit the keeper on the head and his hooked volley on the rebound failed to clear the Ipswich number one.
Ipswich’s spell of dominance was heralded just before the half hour mark when Akpom stayed onside to run through on goal, only to be denied by a fantastic recovery tackle from Aluko. It was time for another brain freeze moment soon after when Stolarczyk’s pass out was blocked but thankfully went directly up into the air for him to claim rather than back into the net.
Howell continued to stand out, creating one chance from distance for Chaplin and then making another for himself after a mazy dribble. McFarlane wasted Leicester’s best opportunity of the half just before the whistle when Walton took too long over a goal kick, the new law meaning Page was afforded a corner to whip in and the left-back heading over the bar when well-positioned to score.
The way Leicester played in this game was evidence, again if needed, that Martin won’t change his approach. This is the way Leicester will set about this season regardless of whether they have players suited to the style or the experience you’d normally want to cope with such a demanding style of play. But for all the possession – and Leicester dominated the ball for long periods in this game against superior individual opponents – there are serious doubts about how that can be translated into a positive impact at either end of the pitch.
Admir Bristric has now played two hours of football in a Leicester City shirt without having a single attempt on goal. He hasn’t even got particularly close to having a shot, unless you count the cross that drifted just over his head on his debut for Wes Burns to score the consolation against Burton. It’s still early days for Bristric but we can still be concerned about what we’ve seen so far without being accused of writing him off. If there was another recognised striker at the club, things might feel different. As it is, we desperately need him to be good. We need him to score goals. We need him to start getting into positions which might lead to a shot.
Leicester will concede a lot of goals this season unless there’s a huge turnaround in the defensive personnel over the next few days. A back four containing four full-backs will always concede goals but the Ipswich opener was particularly painful to watch. Kasey McAteer had already had a goal chalked off for offside and there had almost been a calamitous concession due to a mix-up between Aluko and Stolarczyk when the home side finally took the lead.
Jack Clarke had acres of space down the left and Sondre Egeli had acres of space in the middle. It was hard to know how it had been able to happen other than the feeling that Russell Martin teams are constantly on the verge of permitting the opposition to score a ludicrous goal.
Two minutes later, there was almost an exact replica involving different protagonists, Thomas getting across to block this time after substitute Leif Davis found Akpom in the box.
A brief, but not telling, twist came halfway through the second half with a first Leicester City goal for Bade Aluko. Watson’s best effort of many from distance was parried by Walton and De Cordova-Reid’s follow-up was blocked behind. Louis Page’s corner was headed towards goal by De Cordova-Reid and Aluko nodded the ball in from very close range.
Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Leicester with Marcelino Nunez scoring twice from outside the box in the final 20 minutes to take the game away from the visitors. Both chances to shoot came from Leicester giving the ball away.
First it was Woyo Coulibaly who played a criminal square ball straight to a blue shirt and Nunez was able to disguise a shot in off Stolarczyk’s near post.
Then, after Stolarczyk had made a good save from the profligate Akpom, Page turned cleverly away from his marker in midfield only to gift possession. Nunez took full advantage by sending a brilliant looping shot from inside the centre circle which glanced off the bar and into the net with Stolarczyk flailing.
So Leicester lose to Ipswich for the first time in nine attempts. Despite elements of promise, this game emphasised the growing gulf between the two clubs. Abdul Fatawu, a very rare success for the Seagrave scouting department three years ago, is now free to be rested entirely against his former club to be saved for Premier League action.
Meanwhile, the draw for this round of the League Cup saw Leicester’s social media department making a great play about how exciting it was that Conor Chaplin and Wes Burns would be returning to their previous employers for a round of applause and a catch-up with old mates.
Ipswich have discarded Chaplin and Burns because they have been signing Premier League-ready players and this League Cup version of the Tractor Boys was more reflective of the Championship All-Stars approach they took last season. It was still a better lineup than Leicester will face for most of this season, which should provide a bit of much-needed optimism that there can be a quick turnaround in fortunes.
But this is a huge week for the club. Leicester need more pace and strength throughout the side, technical ability at the back and a more reliable source of goals. They looked so much more dynamic in midfield with Page playing in place of Skipp, while Chaplin clearly offered more than Cullen coming into the side for the first time.
The balance of the side would be improved with a slight tweak to play Braybrooke in a deeper position, giving an extra passing option and slightly more protection to a defence in need. This would depend on Martin’s openness to adaptability, even for small-scale changes.
For all his talk of his players making brave decisions in possession, Martin needs to be bolder when selecting those players for league games. If that means senior players incapable of playing his style are frozen out, then so be it. On the evidence we’ve seen so far, they have to earn their place even more than the young players do.
Martin confirmed after the game that Finnish teenager Ilari Kangasniemi is about to join the club, with talk that Leicester have beaten Europa League clubs to his signature. While a bit of League One knowhow might be the most reassuring way forward, the most important thing right now is to jettison anyone who doesn’t want to be here and focus on young players who want to prove themselves.
Page, if he stays, has to start. McFarlane looked ready to play. Aluko coped well with a difficult assignment. Braybrooke was again refreshingly mobile in midfield and helped get the side up the pitch. There were positive signs from Howell too, while Watson clearly has potential even if he has to be coached to make better decisions in good attacking positions.
Baby steps though. It was promising to see a young Foxes side compete for long periods. It’s still a long way back to where Leicester City need to be.