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A Hoad off my mind with KM Group reporter Alex Hoad - Why Leicester winning the Premier League isn't a good thing
00:00, 17 March 2016
updated: 12:41, 17 March 2016
If you’re a fan of fairytales then this might not be the column for you.
I hereby call on Leicester City to relinquish their crown of the nation’s sweetheart immediately. Give it back to Judi Dench or Clare Balding or whoever actually deserves it.
Full disclosure, I support another team in this, the best ever Premier League title race, so you may think what I'm about to say is tinged with bias, however you’ll have to take my word for it when I say I am able to step back and view this objectively.
Leicester winning the league would not be a good thing for anyone except Leicester and, call me a football snob, I can take it, their victory certainly would not be good for football.
While the suggestion of them being 'anti-football' might be a tad strong, it is a fact that the Foxes see less of the ball than any of the other title contenders (40-45% on average), pass it fewer times when they do have it (just over half as many as Arsenal and Man City, for example) and complete those passes fewer times than anyone else, too (around 70%).
Funny that West Brom, managed by Tony Pulis, (the self-proclaimed ‘biggest Leicester fan for the rest of the season,’ by the way) are the only team to have hit more long balls and fewer short ones. No team has given it away more than Leicester.
This has not happened by accident. Their blueprint for success is to get the ball forward quickly, let’s be kind and call it direct, to make the most of the blistering pace they have in the final third of the pitch.
What’s been the highlight of their season? Jamie Vardy haring onto a punt down the right channel and larruping a volley in against Liverpool? That’s by design.
Leicester’s season has been a perfect storm and Tottenham, Arsenal and Man City fans must hope it blows out and quick. It would be churlish to deny Leicester have superbly put together a starting XI which plays to their strengths. They have also been trained to perfection to remain as fit as possible without incurring injury.
As a result, and the reason why it’s now their title to lose, is they have a mentally strong, disciplined bunch of, let’s be honest, footballing underdogs, who are supremely fit, have nothing to lose, have huge motivation to prove all the naysayers wrong and, crucially, have been underestimated throughout the season.
It may be too late for anyone to stop them now. A dodgy draw at Palace on Saturday or at home to Southampton in a couple of weeks might set the nerves jangling. One can only hope.
But should Danny Drinkwater lift that trophy in the coming weeks, it is as much a reflection on the inability of the Premier League hierarchy to deal with Leicester's basic game plan for far too long as it is a triumph for footballing minnows.
This is no more a fairytale than it is a repeat of the Greek tragedy of Euro 2004.
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The Cheltenham Festival has lit up the week again – the greatest four days of the racing calendar, if you ask me.
Friday’s Gold Cup promises to be one of the highlights of the year, four horses – Don Cossack, Djakadam, Don Poli and Cue Card – are almost neck-and-neck in the betting to land the big one, but here’s my tip. Smad Place at 9/1 each-way might just shock them all.