Following a promising start under Ruud van Nistelrooy, securing a win over West Ham and a draw against Brighton, Leicester City were humbled during the Christmas period.A run of three straight defeats at the hands of Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester City have left the Foxes in 19th place, two points adrift of safety.Ahead of Leicester’s clash against Aston Villa on Saturday, van Nistelrooy knows how important it is not being cemented even further in the bottom three.So, in the January transfer window, Leicester are looking to sign several new players, mainly in an attempt to bolster their back line.
However, regardless of who they bring in, it may not be enough to secure their Premier League status for next season.
Micah Richards and Alan Shearer think Leicester will be relegated
In the supercomputer’s latest verdict on their chances in December, Opta predicted Leicester to be relegated in 46.3% of the simulations.
Now, at the midway point of the campaign, pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have shared their verdict, and it will not please Gary Lineker.
The former Premier League stars have kept with their pre-season prediction of Leicester to go down and explained why on the Rest Is Football podcast.
Shearer: “Yeah, that’s what I think you’ve really struggled without him [Mads Hermansen]. Keepers have made errors. He’s changed the keeper as well to try and shore things up, hasn’t he?
“So yeah, I’m not changing my mind on Leicester.”
Richards replied: “If my stats are correct, the goal difference is minus 20. And if you look at the teams around them, Ipswich minus 15, Wolves for the torrid time, they’ve had minus 11. Everton minus nine, yes, they keep a lot of clean sheets, don’t score many goals.”
“But I just think if you go at that level, you’re going down. So I’m going to stick with my original.”
When Mads Hermansen is back from injury
As Shearer correctly pointed out, van Nistelrooy has missed his first-choice goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
Hermansen suffered a groin injury in the defeat to Newcastle and since then, the Danish shot-stopper has missed defeats against Wolves, Liverpool and Manchester City.
The Foxes have conceded eight goals in their last three outings and have felt the absence of Hermansen, who tops one impressive Premier League statistic.
Having showcased his qualities as a top-flight goalkeeper, supporters will be patiently waiting for him to return, with van Nistelrooy revealing Hermansen is out for another couple of weeks at least.
Speaking in Thursday’s press conference, the Leicester manager said: “Mads won’t be available.
“He’s been assessed over the last week. He’s in his rehab programme. We want him to be well, 100 per cent fit, before he comes back on the pitch. There’s not a clear picture yet of how long it will be, but he’ll be out for a couple of weeks at least.”
The 24-year-old, who Enzo Maresca signed in 2023, is arguably of similar importance to striker Jamie Vardy and Leicester need him back as soon as possible.
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