As the season’s progressed, the number of players that Marti Cifuentes seems confident to hand consistent starts to has whittled down considerably
Marti Cifuentes at Leicester City’s Seagrave training ground
Marti Cifuentes at Leicester City’s Seagrave training ground(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Leicester City arrived into January with 31 players listed in their first-team squad. It’s a big group, and not one that suggests they should be desperate for new arrivals.
Arguably any new signing should aim to improve the starting line-up, but that’s especially the case when there’s such a large squad. At first glance, City don’t need quantity, they need quality.
So why now is Marti Cifuentes appealing for “more numbers”? He’s not desperately pleading for signings yet but he’s certainly amping up the need for them, with his focus on attacking players.
It’s perhaps because, within that 31, there’s a much smaller group that seem to be in contention and available for selection.
Then there’s a host of young players who do not yet seem to be trusted for regular appearances or starts. Jake Evans, Wanya Marcal and Michael Golding haven’t played a senior game this term. For all of their substitute appearances, none of Louis Page, Silko Thomas and Bade Aluko have even started three matches.
With all that considered, it whittles the list of fit players Cifuentes feels comfortable handing regular starts to just 16, and two of those are goalkeepers.
From the start of December and over the past eight games during the busiest period of the season, just 13 players have made at least two starts.
There’s been very little rotation. And while there are benefits to that, it suggests that City’s squad is nowhere near as jam-packed as it initially seems.
It emphasises what Cifuentes has consistently said, that this is a rebuild project.
Over a number of years, there hasn’t been the turnover of players and refresh of the squad that has been required. With every summer that there’s not been an adequate rejuvenation of the group, the situation gets more troubling.
City do now have a good number of prospects coming through the ranks that allow for that rebuild to more easily, and more cheaply, take place, but a lot of them are still teenagers and patience is being shown.
So City do still need to streamline their squad. They need to reach a point where they have a group of 25 players that the manager wholly trusts to play regularly. Right now, they have a group of 30 where just over half seem to be in contention.
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