Leicester City lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United on Sunday.
It wasn’t such a bad performance and nothing to pile pressure on Claude Puel, but the manager has been the subject of some doubt in recent months.
The Foxes aren’t having a bad season yet there can be inconsistencies and the Frenchman doesn’t appear to enjoy universal backing of the club’s supporters.
Nampalys Mendy played 84 minutes in the weekend match, and before that he’d been speaking to L’Equipe as part of the French newspaper’s build-up to the game.
L’Equipe asked the midfielder how he could explain Leicester sometimes playing better against the big teams, such as Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, than against some of the smaller Premier league sides.
He explained: “It’s hard to explain, and frustrating, the big performances against the leaders and mediocre games against little ones. We lack maturity, concentration. This is not normal, there is a problem to solve.”
When Puel took over at Leicester, Mendy was able to reunite with his former manager. Whilst that relationship has helped, the two aren’t especially chatty: “We had a face-to-face discussion during the preseason. He wanted to know what had happened to me since we had left each other. He told me that I had to take my chance. I worked a lot and it worked. We are two people who do not speak much, but we understand each other perfectly by acts.”
Someone who he’s closer to is Ricardo Pereira, the two also having been together in France: “It’s important. I played with Ricardo a season in Nice. I can trust him, rely on him. We often see each other off the pitch, with Rachid Ghezzal and Adrien Silva also.”
That won’t be happening with Silva for a while, the Portuguese now on loan at AS Monaco.
L’Equipe put it to Mendy that he’s now considered one of the best midfielders in the Premier League, and asked him about his personal aims: “I know that I can improve myself better offensively, with more goals and assists. I would also like to end the season without physical glitches. At the collective level, we must aim for seventh place, which is the most accessible.”
