{"id":650044,"date":"2025-01-02T13:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T18:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=650044"},"modified":"2025-01-02T13:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T18:11:09","slug":"leicester-city-relegation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/01\/02\/leicester-city-relegation\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leicester City Can Improve for The New Year and Survive Relegation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leicester City have had a disappointing start to the season as after 19 games; they sit 19th in the table and two points away from safety. There have been negatives so far, though a recent upturn in performances and a January transfer window<\/a> offer hope to the fans. Despite this, they will need to improve upon much more if they want to stay in the top flight.<\/p>\n

What Leicester City Can Improve Upon for the New Year<\/h2>\n

Results So Far<\/h3>\n

Leicester’s return to the Premier League has been underwhelming, considering the way they have lost points and their performances. The first nine games left the Foxes in 15th with nine points, which was a decent start, However, games like Aston Villa and Crystal Palace could be seen as missed opportunities to win points. This was under Steve Cooper as his pragmatic approach seemed to be working, but his side would later go five games without a win, which led to his dismissal.<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>Leicester City Loan Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruud Van Nistelrooy then came in and got off to a dream start with a win against West Ham and a draw against Brighton. This success would be short-lived for the Dutchman as his side would go onto suffer four losses in a row. Tough games away to Newcastle and Liverpool came in this period, but losses to out-of-form Wolves and Manchester City sides emphasises the need for improvement.<\/p>\n

Despite losing in their last two fixtures, there were signs of improvement with the defence looking better against Liverpool. As for the recent clash with Manchester City, the Foxes had more possession<\/a> and created more big chances, which shows glimpses of progression.<\/p>\n

How Leicester City Can Improve<\/h3>\n

The recent games have shown the need to strengthen the backline since Mads Hermansen has been sidelined. Under Van Nistelrooy, 115 shots have been conceded with 13 goals coming from these strikes. A major part of the defensive issues comes from the fullback partnership of James Justin and Viktor Kristiansen. The duo often leave too much space for wingers due to their narrow positioning and then often aren’t good enough to shut down the threat.<\/p>\n

This could be improved by using Hamza Choudhury in the inverted role, as his aggression and athleticism help the midfield and play to the squad’s strengths.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> Evaluating Leicester City’s academy options<\/a><\/p>\n

Last time out, the pivot of Boubakary Soumar\u00e9 and Harry Winks worked well in bypassing the press. Winks was a key part in helping his side become the first team to have over 50% possession <\/a>against Manchester City this season. The Englishmen often took the ball from deep and helped open up space and find creative options. Leicester looked at their best with this pairing and should utilise them more if they want to improve.<\/p>\n

Bilal El Khannouss has also been a bright spark in recent weeks. The Moroccan international always looks to get on the ball and is desperate to make things happen. He is great in tight spaces and was also key in playing through the press with his terrific passing and dribbling. His pressing and energy are also key to this side, so revolving play around him will be important in the second half of the season. He combined well with Facundo Buonanotte as the attack looked at their best with them together.<\/p>\n

Leicester City’s Upcoming Fixtures<\/h3>\n

Coming into the new year, Leicester’s tough run of fixtures continues. A trip to Villa Park marks their first game of 2025, which is never going to be easy considering the Villans’ tremendous home record. There’s then a run of home fixtures as they host QPR, Crystal Palace and Fulham in a week. This looks to be a good chance to pick up points and start a strong cup run, but no game is going to be easy considering how close the Premier League is.<\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>An Analysis on Whether Vincent Kompany Was An Upgrade on Thomas Tuchel for Bayern Munich<\/a><\/p>\n

Then to round up January, the Foxes will travel to Tottenham Hotspur stadium, to take on Ange Postecoglou’s struggling side. This game could go either way given Spurs’ form this year and after how the first meeting between the two sides went.<\/p>\n

Overall, the month of January looks to be a promising period for Leicester to pick up some much-needed points in their bid for survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leicester City have had a disappointing start to the season as after 19 games; they sit 19th in the table and two points away from safety. There have been negatives so far, though a recent upturn in performances and a January transfer window offer hope to the fans. Despite this, they will need to improve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5391,"featured_media":631917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[173],"class_list":["post-650044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leicester-city","category-premier-league","tag-leicester-city"],"modified_by":"Henry Chung, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650087,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650044\/revisions\/650087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}