Leicester City's demise - what's happened?

Last year Leicester City charged to the title in impressive fashion, but this year Claudio Ranieri's side have struggled; but what has gone wrong?

The success of the Foxes last year captivated the footballing world, with the club predicted to drop down to the Championship winning their first top flight title in their 132 year history. Claudio Ranieri was installed as the club's new manager in the summer prior to the 2015-16 season, replacing Nigel Pearson, who admirably rescued City from the drop with an outstanding run of form at the end of the 2014-15 season. Ranieri came in and continued their good form, leading the Foxes to unimaginable league success as an outside 5000-1 shot.

The 2016-17 season has been a remarkably different story. City are nowhere near the top of the Premier League table, even with a squad that is considered generally the same. If anything, Leicester City have added quality players and lost few of their stars.  

Too much tinkering from the Tinkerman

Sometimes, when you have a squad of players that has proved successful, you have to keep the team as is despite the temptation to improve the side. With Leicester City spending over 80 million GBP on new players, "the Tinkerman" Claudio Ranieri has possibly just tinkered too much. The harmony in the squad seems to be out of balance. The experienced heads of last year such as Danny Drinkwater and Jamie Vardy look like different players. 

Poor on the road

Leicester City have not managed to win even a single league game on the road. Their home form is generally OK, but away from home Leicester City look like a side lacking massive confidence and short of ideas.

Ranieri's tactics and formation 

Last year, Leicester's attack put Shinji Okazaki, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez as an attacking trio; this season Ranieri has tinkered with 4-4-2, 4-4-2 diamonds and various variants of 4-3-3. What made the club so successful last year was Mahrez having the backup of Danny Simpson covering him behind, Marc Albrighton putting the balls through for Okazaki and Vardy from the left; Okazaki (who appears to have been forgotten to some degree this year) tracking plenty of ground from the attack. Ranieri has just experimented just too much. 

Mahrez has been cleverly marked out of the game this season. The Premier League has realised, if you stop Mahrez, you stop Leicester City. Opposition teams simply mark Mahrez out of the game and Ranieri has yet to find a way to bring Mahrez back into the game. As Mahrez is marked out of the game, this City side do not have enough room to counter attack. They have been sussed out.

In the recent defeat to Southampton, Ranieri got his formation very wrong. Adopting a diamond exposed his defenders at the back, leaving gaping holes on the flanks. In last season's campaign the wings were the focal point of City's attacking prowess and putting a group of players into a formation that focuses on the centre of the field cost Leicester dearly against the Saints. The diamond is generally used to break down teams with strength in the centre, but this formation just confused City's midfield of Ndidi, Mendy and Drinkwater, who found themselves constantly swapping positions in confusion throughout the game. 

The diamond also means that if you play wider players, they need to be doing a lot of running; without a Kante this simply has not worked for City.

Champions League distractions 

Interestingly, Leicester City's form in the Champions League does not match their league form. If anything, Leicester are showing the kind of form in the Champions League that they displayed in the Premier League last year, topping the table in their first season in Europe's top competition.

The slower pace of the Champions League seems to have suited Leicester this year, but the marauding pace of Kante is certainly missed in the middle of the park.

The Champions League is probably not a domestic distraction, but more of a reminder of how good City can be. 

Attacking problems

Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez were the Premier League's star players last year. Jamie Vardy broke an old Ruud van Nistelrooy consecutive goalscoring record as City went on to win the title. Mahrez would be provider and goalscorer; both were outstanding. This year is a different story, too. Last season Mahrez scored 17 goals, this year the Algerian has struggled in front of goal. Perhaps the Player of the Year of last year is feeling the pressure of being considered the Premier League's best talent. 7 goals in 27 games has been a disappointing return for Mahrez.

For Vardy, 6 goals in 27 games in the Premier League has been a disappointment, too. Last year Vardy was linked with a move to Arsenal and since then the striker has yet to show his form of the last campaign. 

Meanwhile, the purchases of Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani have both been high profile but neither have really produced the goods on a regular basis, despite showing flashes of their quality every now and then. Musa has scored 4 goals in 22 games, while Slimani has bagged 6 in 16.

N'golo Kante

The departure of Kante to Chelsea could be pointed to as a massive loss. Away from home at some of England's trickiest stadiums, Kante stood out for Leicester City as a star player, tracking enormous amounts of ground as the Foxes pushed for league success. Kante's performances on the road at the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea were outstanding. Of course, the Blues moved very quickly to snap up the French defensive midfielder and ironically the Blues' form this year has been much like Leicester's form of last year. A complete contrast in form.

Last season Leicester City made almost double the amount of interventions at this stage of the Premier League season. Kante is very much missed. Danny Drinkwater is having to put in double the legwork to cover for Kante, with Andy King perhaps not the answer to the club's replacement for the French international.

Poor Signings

Claudio Ranieri's best efforts to replace N'golo Kante have failed. The signing of Wilfried Ndidi from Genk this month appears to suggest that Ranieri thinks Nampalys Mendy - signed from Nice last summer as a replacement for Kante - isn't enough. 

In addition, adding Ahmed Musa and Islam Slimani means that Ranieri's irresistable urge to rotate his squad has unsettled the likes of Shinji Okazaki. Musa has been abysmal at times and Slimani, while having the odd great game, is also not getting the regular games that he needs. 

Their luck has run out

Leicester City's luck last year was on their side. This year, it's clearly not. With no away victories, some argue that you need some luck to earn victories on the road. Perhaps it was just meant to be their season. Football is a funny old game and maybe their victory story was already written.

Leicester City need to find their formation and settle with it, or the Championship could be edging ever closer.