I have two Leicester City-related updates to discuss with the Blue Army today (Friday, October 31). It might be Halloween, but I’ll try not to spook our readers with grim tales of the Foxes’ recent performances.
Instead, I can actually share a more positive development before the weekend. And this particular piece of news has been a long time coming, as a long-term sidelined Leicester centre-back is finally nearing a return.
Alongside this potentially significant fitness boost, there’s another issue worth noting. However, the second story will spark a bit more unease among LCFC supporters. That’s because a statement made by City head coach Marti Cifuentes is now being called into question.
The subject had already raised eyebrows before the former Queens Park Rangers boss arguably highlighted it further, inadvertently drawing more attention to the concern.
Cifuentes’ remarks about chance creation and, ultimately, goal scoring have been challenged. But how accurate is that criticism—and what should we make of both points?
Leicester Mercury dispute Marti Cifuentes’ comments:
This is certainly an intriguing stat shared by LCFC Live journalist Jordan Blackwell. Essentially, the confusion revolves around a comment the Catalan coach made concerning how many chances Leicester generate per match.
The Foxes manager suggested that he isn’t worried about his forwards’ current lack of cutting edge. His reasoning was that goals are being spread around the team, and, in his view, the squad is sufficiently creative.
However, Blackwell wrote this in response to the coach’s assertion:
“However, it could be argued City are not creating chances to the degree they should be doing. Opta have City’s expected goals total at 13.3 for the first 11 fixtures, putting them 12th in the division. They’ve actually been improving – they were 16th at the start of the month – but need to rank much higher before they can confidently claim they’re creating enough opportunities.” – [Leicester Mercury]