Currently, there's a widespread feeling of confusion at Filbert Way. After an impressive haul of eight points against Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea, Stoke and Manchester United, the Foxes have failed to pick up more than a solitary point against less fancied outfits Crystal Palace, Burnley, Newcastle, Swansea and West Brom - as well as high-flying Southampton. Begging the question; what on earth has happened to Leicester City?
I'm not usually a fan of phrases like "typical Leicester" or "classic City". They're constantly used with pessimistic connotations and are synonymous with the sort of banally arrogant fatalism that's spouted by nearly every football fan the nation over. However, Leicester's recent glitch does seem to resonate with our rather regrettable tradition of helping those on a bad run - be they Newcastle, Swansea or Shane Long. At least, that's all I thought it was until one point in four became one point in five which then became one point in six.
Last season, Leicester were a beacon of stability. The formidable system of 4-4-2 was seldom tinkered with, and the same could be said for the personnel. Crucially, it seemed the Championship's big-hitters of last term; Leicester, Burnley, Derby etc., all used the fewest amount of players in the league. Consistency in selection led to consistent results.
I'm sure monotony, as you may dub it, is quite in tune with City manager Nigel Pearson's appearance. However, in recent weeks he seems to have deviated from that image. Leicester have started their last six games in no less than five different systems with the starting eleven from the previous game failing to survive intact for the next game once.
And as much as I admire his work at the club thus far, Nigel Pearson ought to take a sizeable portion of the culpability for the recent blip. The manager's defensive and dismissive attitude when it comes to discussing tactics with the media has been challenged lately as he's been keener to explore different set-ups - it appears Pearson may have bought in to the anti-4-4-2 rhetoric of the Premier League's experts. Persistent tinkering is surely counter-productive, particularly when that very tinkering has the side lining up to match West Bromwich Albion's threat at home. Talks of a confidence crisis have been rife on City forums, and with the manager not placing ample faith in his side to undo Albion playing to their strengths there would be no surprise if there was some substance to it.
There too have been repeated calls of a reversion to Leicester's favoured 4-4-2 system, to include more width in to the side's play, be it tactically en vogue or not. City's strikers that started the most recent league outing at St. Mary's, Leonardo Ulloa and Jamie Vardy have scored six goals between them this season, all of them, bar a penalty against Manchester United have come from wide positions. In fact, since Pearson sacrificed width for whatever he feels the side has gained since, I can barely remember the pair having a shot on target between them.
On top of this, the Foxes seem content enough to continually invite pressure on themselves away from home, looking to absorb any threat and then cannon the ball back out to the opposition - at least we appear to have learned the art of defending set pieces, not that we could score one at the other end in a month of Sundays. Simply put though, Leicester are not good enough to play the containing game away from home and consistently pick up points. Our best players are attackers, and as clichéd as it sounds, they need to be a form of defence for us away from home as much as the defenders do.
Don't get me wrong, Nigel Pearson has been a superb manager for the club and to want his dismissal at this moment in time would be lunacy but his decisions of late have definitely raised eyebrows. His persistence with isolating previously free-scoring Leonardo Ulloa up top and his desire to transform our best striker in Jamie Vardy in to a makeshift winger have been thoroughly ineffective and ultimately a waste of time. It seems clear to everyone in the stands that Nigel needs to discover his best eleven and start playing to our strengths, home and away - like he said he was going to before the start of the current campaign.
Of course, it's also true that this slump is not all the manager's fault. The current Leicester team(s) haven't really looked like scoring in their last six matches, summed up perfectly by Chris Wood's unthinkable miss on the South Coast. On top of that, our passing game has been erratic, rushed and panicked for weeks. Leicester's attacking and defensive strengths seem to be depreciating simultaneously but despite it not being all down to Nigel Pearson - it's his job to fix it.
However, it's important to remember that the sides that fought gallantly against the country's footballing elite are all still here, they just need to be unearthed again. Maybe, it's time to do away with what others think and go and play Leicester City's game, and perhaps, in Football Manager terms switch the mentality from 'contain' back to 'counter' away from home- it wasn't working too badly in August and September. I'm not having the suggestion that we aren't good enough for this level because we are - we've seen it, it just needs to be reproduced again and again. But with all this being said, it's imperative we as fans don't lose hope and our patience with Nigel Pearson - he'll sort it all out with time to spare, and so will the players.