By Tony Alvarez
At the beginning of the season the bookies favourites and many fans and pundits favourites to win the Championship was Leicester City. They had spent massively improving their squad in the summer and had a manager who was well regarded worldwide in Sven Goran Erikkson.
A look at the table shows just how wrong everyone was far from running away with the title the club are currently in 9th place with 62 points from their 42 fixtures, the former England manager has long since departed and been replaced with a much smaller name in Nigel Pearson.
Leicester are known for being one of the most inconsistent sides in the division, they have a squad of very good players who can beat anyone in their division on their day unfortunately for them their day hasn’t happened too often. I think everyone just expected everything to happen too soon spending big money doesn’t gaurentee instant success as many clubs have found out in the past.
Despite all the doom and gloom that’s been around the Leicestersquad this term they still remarkably find themselves in with a shot at promotion although they are currently 9th they sit just three points off the final play off spot and have a better goal difference than all of the sides they are competing with for that spot.
The Foxes are not on particularly good form although they had a good 2-1 win over Ipswich last time out to keep their hopes alive, next up is Millwall who are in 18th in the table and seemingly have nothing to play for in theory this is the type of fixture you want, however Millwall are battlers and nothing will be handed to Leicester on a plate.
Following Millwall the Foxes take on Burnley who again have very little to play for as they are in 12th but again they are a side who battle and manager Eddie Howe wont let his squad have their minds on anything but the game.
Leicesters toughest test comes on the penultimate day of the season when they host West Ham who are fighting for an automatic promotion place, this is the calibre of side Pearson’s’ men will be facing should they reach the play offs and it would be good for them to get one over on a potential rival.
Assuming that Leicester are still within touching distance of the play offs they will be faced with another hard working yet lower placed side in Leeds United, they currently lie 14th and have been disappointing since the appointment of Neil Warnock and he certainly wont want to go on a long summer break on the back of a home loss.
With the calibre of the players in their squad if they are truly up for it they are more than capable of winning the play offs they have big game players and there are not too many games bigger than those in the Football League play offs.
Having said that I really don’t believe Leicester will make the play offs let alone win them, if they won all of their remaining fixtures from now until the end of the season they will make it I believe as I feel others will slip up, but with the way they have been this term it wouldn’t surprise me if they drop points themselves especially considering the sides they are still yet to play.
What are your thoughts? Can Leicester make the play offs? Are they capable of winning the play offs? What’s behind Leicester’s poor season?
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