It has been a pretty inauspicious start to the season for Leicester after their miserable relegation under Ruud Van Nistelrooy last May.
New manager Marti Cifuentes (formerly at QPR) has seen them struggle to overcome ten man Sheffield Wednesday; lose on penalties to Huddersfield in the Carabao Cup, and be defeated again (2-1) at unfancied Preston last weekend.
Leicester fan writer Chris Forryan comments:
"I wonder how those fans that were predicting an easy season for us - even getting promotion with a points deduction - are feeling now? Reality stings a bit, doesn't it? It is, of course, early doors, but the squad is still full of overpriced, overpaid players who we are unlikely to shift, as basically they are not up to it. In Marti we trust, but it looks like a long hard season."
There are some grounds for optimism. Leicester's goal at Preston was scored by Jeremy Monga who, at 16 years and 37 days old, became the youngest scorer in The Championship since it was rebranded in 2004. He scored his goal ten minutes after coming on as a substitute to replace Stephy Mavidivi who Charlton fans may recall as a pacy teenage loanee from Arsenal back in 2017/18. He is now in his third season at Leicester after spells at Juventus, Dijon and Montpelier.
It is twelve years ago almost to the day since we last hosted Leicester City at The Valley. It was a similar situation to this weekend with City one of the fancied clubs for promotion to The Premier League. They fielded a starting line-up which included Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan, Jeffrey Schlupp, Danny Drinkwater and Jamie Vardy while still having the luxury of being able to bring on Anthony Knockaert and Chris Wood as second half substitutes. They were to go on to win the league by nine points while Charlton were to scramble to 18th under Jose Riga, but on that August evening they found themselves 0-2 down after half an hour. Michael Morrison opened the scoring from a Dale Stephens corner and Yann Kermorgant (loudly jeered by the Leicester fans because of his missed play-off final penalty for them the previous year) notched the second. Drinkwater pulled one back but Charlton held on relatively comfortably for their first win of the season.
We have a strong record at The Valley against The Foxes with 16 wins out of 24 encounters. They beat us in the FA Cup twenty years ago but you have to go back eight league games (1996) to find the last time they left SE7 with all three points. Our fine run includes the 2001 April Fool’s Day 2-0 win with Sean Bartlett's goal of the season and Steve Brown being sent off while on a stretcher five months later. However, some of us with longer memories still shudder to think about the 0-5 defeat in March 1970 when Eddie Firmani picked winger Mike Kenning to play left back. Eddie was sacked two days later and Charlton just avoided relegation under Theo Foley.
Leicester like to play a passing game, with an average of 67% possession during their two league games so far (per Fotmob data). Nathan Jones will want his high pressing Addicks to cause as much disruption in possession as possible. In fact, the high press nearly came off a few times last week so let’s hope it’s similarly successful this time out. Also, Leicester have the highest shots per match (7.5), the third highest touches in their oppositions’ box (69) and rank 5th for xG (3.5). They will set up in a 4231 so when Charlton have possession the systems will be matched. However, when defending, Charlton switch to a back three and have more defensive cover. Conor Coventry and whoever partners him at the base of midfield will need to be positionally disciplined to deal with the roaming threat of Bilal El Khannouss who is currently being linked to a £32m transfer to Palace.
Charlton fans should be able to approach Saturday's game in a confident mood after the team's resolute and inspired performances against Watford and Bristol City and there is every reason to believe that the unbeaten home run (now 17 games) will continue. A large crowd is once again expected so early arrival is recommended.
Photo by Rhea Spencer-Newell