Schmeichel: Boy bond has made us chart toppers
THE champagne is on ice for Leicester but there has been no attempt to put a cork in the players’ nights out. In the mind of Kasper Schmeichel, that might just be one of the reasons behind their incredible season.
For all the theories about why the incredible is happening in the East Midlands, the simple, unsexy answer of team spirit is getting an increasingly common airing. The team that goes out together is winning together, and today they might just find another reason to celebrate.
A win against Sunderland, coupled with Manchester United losing against Tottenham, would make Champions League qualification a certainty. Conversely, a United win could quite feasibly see Leicester 10 points clear with five games to play.
A recurring theme throughout their march to this point has been the bond between their players, and Schmeichel said: ‘Our team spirit is great, we do a lot of things together and always have done from the day I joined.
‘We have always had events and gone out and things like that. We have been lucky because we have had good managers who recognise that is an important part of us and an important part of why we have the spirit we do, because we do go out and enjoy nights out or events.
‘It is massively important for a team, and especially for us, because it just gives us so much on the social side off the pitch. These players are all very close, you know each other, you know each other’s problems and you support each other.’
Not underestimated in the astonishing transformation from this time last year has been the light touch of manager Claudio Ranieri.
It has been well documented the Italian resisted making a heavy mark when he replaced Nigel Pearson, but Schmeichel built on the point with a revelation that Ranieri was so keen not to meddle that he didn’t speak to his players for a full week after his initial introductions.
The goalkeeper said: ‘The manager is very charismatic and he likes to show what he wants, he gets his point across in a good way. The best compliment I can pay is that he resisted the urge to change everything. That is something a lot of managers want to do — they bring their own people and do everything their own way.
‘He came in the first week, he introduced himself and then didn’t say anything the following week because he just watched us, how we work, and recognised he had a squad that worked well with each other, got on really well, played well and trained hard.
‘He just tweaked things here and there, tactical things like going to the 4-4-2 and, as a player, you appreciate a manager who can maybe compromise a bit in his own ways for the good of the team.’
The absence of any dramatic alterations from one regime to another makes the rise of this club from relegation candidates all the more remarkable, not to mention harder to rationalise.
What makes their progress all the more alarming for those in the chasing pack is that, having blitzed for the first portion of the season with a brilliant attack, Leicester have developed a quite brilliant defence which has delivered four straight clean sheets and has papered over any issue that might have been caused by the diminished recent goal returns from Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy.