As Leicester City look for a first league win since September, Kasper Schmeichel has urged the board to show faith in Nigel Pearson.
It will go down as one of the greatest days in the club’s recent history, but the Foxes 5-3 win against Manchester United back on 21 September was the last time they collected a maximum haul of points in the Premier League. They have since lost four times and drawn twice, including the tepid goalless stalemate at home to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.
This leaves last season’s Championship winners third-bottom in the standings, and just two points ahead of bottom-placed Queens Park Rangers. Naturally in the cut-throat world of top-flight management, this has resulted in Pearson coming under the spotlight, but Schmeichel has urged the King Power board to stick with the 51-year-old.
“I think the world of Nigel Pearson as a manager and I know he will get it right. He knows how to manage us,” the Danish goalkeeper told BBC Radio Leicester. “We know the gaffer and the gaffer knows how we are. We have a great group of lads and I have every faith in the players, the management and the set-up of the club – we will get it right.
“The mentality hasn’t been down or anything like that. We are in a new league, we are getting used to it. It is a tough league, possibly the toughest in the world and we are adjusting and getting better. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we knew we would get into periods where the clean sheets and goals would be hard to come by. It is important that you keep the faith, you keep your mentality right, head up and spirits high.”
Pearson, who is in his second spell at the club, takes his side to Loftus Road to face QPR next weekend in a game which now has added importance due to the current standings. Should the Foxes suffer a seventh league defeat of the campaign, they will rely on Aston Villa doing them a favour at Burnley to ensure they don’t prop up the table on Saturday night.
Despite Leicester’s plight, Pearson is only the fifth favourite to be sacked next, according to oddschecker.com. At the top of this list is Aston Villa’s Paul Lambert, followed by Harry Redknapp (QPR), Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool), and Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham Hotspur).
Should Leicester stick by Pearson, or should they look for an alternative manager to lead them to safety? Let us know what you think by joining in the discussion.
