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Porto 5-0 Leicester: Claudio Ranieri under pressure after record defeat?

Claudio Ranieri

After Leicester’s record-breaking 5-0 Champions League defeat to Porto, Claudio Ranieri finds himself facing new questions about the team’s stuttering season. Adam Bate was at the Estadio do Dragao to witness a sorry night for the Premier League champions…

Leicester had already qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League as Group G winners with a game to spare. Some achievement and one that the travelling supporters really had to force themselves to remember as Porto utterly dismantled a weakened Foxes team 5-0 in the Estadio do Dragao on Wednesday. Context is everything.

Champions League qualification. Another dream city break for the fans. Bruges and Copenhagen had already been ticked off so add another to the list. In one sense at least, Leicester's fairy-tale continues. After all, just to be in this competition at all acts as a tangible reminder of the club's extraordinary title triumph just seven months ago.

Leicester thrashed by Porto
Leicester thrashed by Porto

A much-changed Leicester side were thrashed 5-0 in Porto in their final Champions League group game

But there is another context to this. There's the Premier League table. The five-game winless streak that includes defeats to West Brom, Watford and Sunderland. The fact that they are two points above the drop zone. Leicester are making Chelsea's title defence seem serene. Such is the predicament that Saturday's visit of Manchester City can no longer be seen as a free hit.

With that in mind, Claudio Ranieri left sluggers such as Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez at home in the hope that a break might reinvigorate some of the characters who so lit up last season. But in doing so he robbed Leicester of the chance for their European escapades to provide a fillip for fans and sustain any semblance of confidence in this squad.

The Leicester City players are dejected after their side concede a goal during the UEFA Champions League Group G match at Porto
Image: Leicester players looking dejected after conceding one of five goals against Porto

"If we had to win, maybe all my players would be here, but I can choose," Ranieri has said beforehand. "Always I have said we have a very good team. There are some players who didn't play so far - they deserve their chance to show their potential." If that was the plan it could be deemed an utter failure within 45 minutes of the kick off.

By that stage, Porto were three up, scoring more goals in one half than they'd managed in the previous 12 hours of football. The home side deserved credit and received plenty of it from the near 40,000 crowd in the Dragao but the ease with which they ripped through this Leicester side said little for the spirit within Ranieri's squad let alone the quality.

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Perhaps it was all too much to ask. Goalkeeper Ben Hamer's previous competitive action this season came in the Checkatrade Trophy and Leicester lost to Walsall. His nervous handling of a cross led to the concession of a corner from which Andre Silva opened the scoring. Jeffrey Schlupp, making a rare start on the flank, was the man who was beaten in the air.

Hamer and Schlupp were just two of the squad players who endured rather than enjoyed this European experience. Highly-rated young full-back Ben Chilwell didn't get close enough to Jesus Corona for Porto's superb second, while Nampalys Mendy, the £13m summer signing featuring for the first time since August, had some difficult moments of his own.

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Highlights of Leicester's 2-1 win defeat to Sunderland in the Premier League

Retaining possession proved a problem. Marcin Wasilewski looked ill at ease throughout. Ahmed Musa struggled to get hold of it at all. The Nigerian had long since been withdrawn by the time Diogo Jota slammed home the fifth to consign Leicester to the worst defeat by an English side in European Cup history and the club's worst in any competition for six years.

"My players lost a very great chance to show me their best," said a visibly bereft Ranieri when speaking afterwards. The Italian stressed that the decision to rotate so heavily was his and, in that respect, he shouldered the responsibility. But he also made it clear that the back-up options had shown him - and the Leicester fans - precisely why they were just that.

My players lost a very great chance to show me their best.
Claudio Ranieri

"I have no regrets because I wanted to give an opportunity to all my players," said Ranieri. "Why not give a chance to players who say 'why don't I play? We are losing in the Premier League, give me a chance'. For this reason, I give a chance to them. That's it. Then, the result is my fault but they missed a great chance."

It was tough on Ranieri. But when the team is struggling this badly, even the most marvellous of achievements cannot shield him from blame. Mistakes are being made and while only the more trigger-happy Leicester supporters' solution to that situation is to end his employment, some of the questions being asked are legitimate ones.

No regrets for Ranieri
No regrets for Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri explains his decision to field a weakened side against Porto

Can Ranieri really hope to stick with a 4-4-2 rendered unfit for purpose since the departure of N'Golo Kante? Why has the club's transfer activity brought bodies but little else? What happened to the world beaters who now seem so world weary? Worryingly for a team in a relegation battle, Ranieri appears to be still wrestling with these questions himself.

"When we win, we win together. When we lose, we lose together. My experience says it's important to stay calm and be positive, believe in your players and do the best for your team," he had said beforehand. But increasingly it seems these players do not even believe in themselves. Unfortunately, there is little time to restore shattered confidence.

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A response is required against Manchester City and perhaps one slender positive from this thrashing is that Leicester can now go into it with their status as true underdogs restored. With Europe on hold, there is some clarity. "I have a clearer idea about my players now," said Ranieri. "We need to focus on the Premier League and change our position."

The supporters too must refocus, although the Champions League draw on Monday will have many scrambling for flights once more. "Champions of England, we know what we are," they chanted long into the Porto night. But maybe it's time for the Leicester players to remember instead what got them there in the first place.

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