And then there were two. Leicester City have used seven different players in their two attacking midfield roles this season, and five of them won’t be available to face Sunderland on Tuesday.
Cesare Casadei has long since been recalled by Chelsea, and now four players are injured, with Wilfred Ndidi and Kasey McAteer already out, with Ricardo Pereira’s hamstring issue emerging in the hour before the defeat to QPR, and Dennis Praet hobbling off after 15 minutes. That leaves just Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Yunus Akgun. The situation is so desperate that Enzo Maresca joked he would have to come out of retirement to play half-an-hour at the Stadium of Light.
After three straight defeats, City are in a wobble. They are in their most difficult moment of the season. To get out of it, it’s helpful to have their best players available. They don’t have that.
Ricardo’s injury is particularly exasperating after the week he’d had. His performance at Leeds showed he was perhaps the best option to play alongside Dewsbury-Hall while Ndidi was out, the Portuguese producing one of the best individual displays of the campaign. Then he changed the game off the bench at Bournemouth too.
Ndidi’s return can’t come soon enough. In the 17 games he’s started this season, City have earned 2.71 points per game, in the 18 games he’s not started, it stands 1.78 points per game.
But while Maresca’s options are limited, it doesn’t feel like he helped himself with his configuration on Saturday. When Praet limped off and Yunus was introduced, Dewsbury-Hall switched to the right of the two attacking midfield roles. Maresca moved him there because, out of possession, it’s the more defensive of the two roles, with the left-hand player pressing with the striker.
