One against the other, with only a quarter of the season left. Friday’s game is very important for Leicester City and Leeds United.
But that’s not what the managers of the two clubs can say right now. Enzo Maresca has made it quite clear that whatever the result at Elland Road, City’s fate will not be decided tonight. Daniel Farke thinks that even if City lose to Leeds, they will still definitely go through.
For City, the danger of the game is eliminated. This may help their players to avoid emotions and concentrate more on the game plan. For the fans, it may calm their nerves a little.
A 12-point difference with 12 games to go in the championship would be exciting. It is not an insurmountable sum, but at that point it would seem that City are within touching distance.
Then they would have to slip up at least four times to be relegated from the top two places, which is hard to imagine given the confidence that comes with a win over your nearest rival and the way they have dispatched many of the weaker teams in the division this campaign.
What’s more, it seems that City still have to prove that they have something to show in the biggest games. That is not to say that the results they have earned are insignificant. Consistency is needed to secure promotion and win titles and City’s performance against teams from the bottom half of the table is incredibly impressive. That is what has got them to where they are.
However, it would be very important for the belief in the team if they managed to beat one of their rivals. In a mini-league consisting only of matches between the top six clubs, City would currently be in fifth place, even though they have played fewer matches.
Against rivals for automatic promotion, they were eliminated by Southampton in a period when the Saints were struggling with Russell Martin’s tactics, but have since been beaten by Leeds and drawn twice with Ipswich.
The loss at Leeds still rankles a little. It was not the same defeat as last week against Middlesbrough, where wasted chances were as much to blame as any poor performance. Leeds were simply the better team.
As Farke said on Wednesday: “We won the last game, we returned with a clean sheet and we were quite dominant, at least in several periods of the game, with our pressing and we looked rock solid when we had to defend. I’d like to repeat this.”
It wouldn’t be fair to get too hung up on one game, but it would have been nice to see a really strong performance against Leeds in particular. Their fast-paced style seems like kryptonite for a team built on Maresco principles, and it would be very satisfying to beat them, especially if they haven’t lost at home all season.
Put all that together and if City play well and win deservedly, they will have secured a decisive performance and result to their campaign. That should be the incentive that should prevail over offers from managers to lower the stakes.