Today is the turn of Graham Tracey, who provided a number of reports on northern based away games, to give his views on last season. We hope more UK based Foxile members will join the team to report on games close to where they live next season.
At the start of the season, what would you have regarded as a successful return to the Premiership? Definitely survival, with any famous victories and a good cup run being a bonus.
Were your expectations raised following the 5 – 3 victory over Man Utd ? They were already high from the preceding games, and although United were poor in defence, I didn’t expect us to struggle for goals so badly for goals for so long afterwards.
With Villa at home being the only victory in the first 3 months of 2015, did you think we would stay in the division going into April? No. It simply seemed too much to ask, however well we played.
What do you feel were the main reasons we went on such a long run without a win? Negative gameplans – ie trying to keep it at 0-0 for as long as we could in hope of nicking a late goal, together with individual defensive mistakes.
By contrast, the end of season run was an incredible set of results, what do you feel were the main reasons for the sudden success? Change of formation and attacking attitude, plus form of key individuals through the spine of the team.
Was there any point during the season where you felt a change of manager would have been the best way forwards? No. If the players back a manager (and you can tell the clubs where they are just paying lip service) as our squad clearly did, don’t change.
I also enjoyed Pearson’s zero tolerance of morons policy. I wouldn’t accept being aggressively verbally abused by a client when I was in my workplace or accept a lecture from a pompous know-it-all like Pat Murphy who has never done my job or had to put his own neck on the line in his work, so why should a football manager have to?
What was your personal highlight of the season? Winning at Burnley. The first top flight game I had seen us win since the last game at Filbert Street. Even though working in an office of Burnley season ticket holders made things awkward.
Esteban Cambiasso won all the official player of the season awards, would he have been your choice and who else impressed you this season? It was an honour for us to have his services, and his bow on scoring in the last game was a beautiful moment. You only have to hear the reverence the players hold him in to understand his importance. But so many others also stepped up to the plate, even when only playing bit part roles or when suddenly drafted in for a run of games.
A number of experienced heads were added to last season’s squad, which of this seasons signings did you think made the most significant impact? Clearly Cambiasso and Huth. And although Albrighton is not old, his experience towards the end certainly helped.
A number of players made significant strides forwards with their career, which player do you think made the most progress last season and why? I would single out Jeff Schlupp, seeing as he wasn’t a regular in the Championship. The wing back role is ideally suited to him. He always wanted the ball, and even though his finishing is hit and miss he doesn’t go hiding.
Were there any players that failed to live up to your expectations? Like many people I think Konchesky is a limited player and the signing of Fuchs probably signals his demise. Drinkwater will have been disappointed not to have featured more but I’m sure his time will come, especially with James now being out for a long time.
What changes to the squad do you think are necessary to improve on this year’s Premiership Campaign? For me the onus is as much on securing Huth and Cambiasso and preventing swoops for other talent such as Schlupp, Mahrez, Schmeicel or Vardy, as signing new players. There will be a lot more to come from Kramaric so as he’s hardly played yet this may be like signing a new player.
If you could advise Nigel Pearson on new signings, who would your suggestions be for additions to the squad? As always, it’s about getting the right personalities. Foreign talent will always want to come to a Premiership club, especially if they see Leicester as an established outfit, but I hope we keep as many British players in the squad as possible.
What do you feel is most significant element of our game we will need to improve next season? Keep the momentum of taking the game to the opposition, and improving on set pieces at both ends would give a big yield on points earned.
The King Power stadium, which has always compared unfavourably to Filbert Street for atmosphere suddenly came to life this season, with a number of visiting sets of supporters stating our ground had the most noise in the division, what do you think were the reasons for this? Hard for me to say as I mostly go to away games, but my best guess is that having been in the wilderness for so long, it really mattered to our fans and they ensured they played their part.
Any other observation you would like to make Although I think too much is sometimes made of players having to be role models (we can all be idiots sometimes), I do not want to be in a position of having to cheer individuals whose actions fill me with contempt. I would certainly lose my job were I convicted of assaulting an ex-partner or involved in an unsavoury sex video, and so I hope the club sack all 4 players involved in these incidents.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation
The Trust dedicates this series of end of season reviews to one of our match reporting team who has contributed since we first launched them. Mike King sadly passed away a couple of days before the final day of the season.