{"id":8204,"date":"2017-10-25T14:40:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T18:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=8204"},"modified":"2017-10-30T01:35:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T05:35:06","slug":"leicester-city-appoint-claude-puel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2017\/10\/25\/leicester-city-appoint-claude-puel\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester City appoint Claude Puel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/leicester-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leicester City<\/a> has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LCFC\/status\/923255387888988160\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">officially named<\/a> former <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/southampton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Southampton<\/a> manager Claude Puel their new manager. Interim manager Michael Appleton led the Foxes to two victories through two weeks in charge, but\u00a0the club was intent on bringing in someone with more top-flight experience in their plight to remain in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<h2>Leicester City appoint Claude Puel<\/h2>\n<p>Puel has been out of a job since his surprise sacking by Southampton following their\u00a0eighth-place finish last season. The Frenchman received a lot of criticism for his side&#8217;s inability to score goals, finding the net just 41 times in 38 matches. Southampton spent the majority of the term without a first choice striker due to the injury to Jay Rodriguez. Additionally, Puel may not be to blame for the offensive woes; Mauricio Pellegrino&#8217;s side have managed just eight goals\u00a0in nine Premier League matches this year.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, Puel&#8217;s Southampton was very effective on the defensive side of the ball. They conceded just 48 times last season, which saw Virgil Van Dijk&#8217;s value skyrocket to over\u00a0\u00a360 million\u00a0this summer. Puel&#8217;s defensive know-how will certainly be welcome\u00a0at the King Power Stadium, as\u00a0the Foxes have only been able to keep three clean sheets this season. This emphasis on defending will most likely provide Harry Maguire and Wilfried Ndidi with more responsibility but should free Riyad Mahrez from tracking back as much in order to initiate attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Leicester&#8217;s next two Premier League matches will provide big tests for Puel. <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/clubs\/everton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Everton<\/a> travels to the King Power looking to turn their season after dismissing another ex-Southampton boss, <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonfootball.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2017\/10\/23\/everton-sack-manager-ronald-koeman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ronald Koeman<\/a>.\u00a0After that, the Foxes\u00a0face a trip to Stoke City.\u00a0Six points from those games will create distance between Leicester and the relegation zone, validating the Frenchman&#8217;s appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"Bunh7PijTWlmgu-ZqZRPEQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/686602098\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Bunh7PijTWlmgu-ZqZRPEQ',sig:'R_P6HXASqgD_wT88Bk61tuFuCRR1uIQbxR-xoQZIMaQ=',w:'594px',h:'412px',items:'686602098',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leicester City has\u00a0officially named former Southampton manager Claude Puel their new manager. Interim manager Michael Appleton led the Foxes to two victories through two weeks in charge, but\u00a0the club was intent on bringing in someone with more top-flight experience in their plight to remain in the Premier League. Leicester City appoint Claude Puel Puel has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2029,"featured_media":8229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[3,2,15,30],"tags":[936,173,40,120,235],"class_list":["post-8204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-leicester-city","category-news","tag-claude-puel","tag-leicester-city","tag-premier-league","tag-ronald-koeman","tag-southampton"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204","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\/2029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}