Very keen to leave Leicester City at the end of last season, Riyad Mahrez never got the transfer he wanted over the summer, and he now has to stay at King Power Stadium until at least January.
While he has remained professional throughout, the Algeria international has struggled to recapture the form that put his name on the map in the first place during the Foxes’ unlikely title winning season.
Such a campaign was always going to be hard to reproduce, and both Mahrez and Leicester City suffered a difficult 2016-17 football year, with managerial changes and a bottom half finish.
Part of that squad was also Islam Slimani, also a regular for the Algeria national team, who also didn’t have the best of seasons, starting just 13 league games, arriving from Sporting CP with a lot of pressure as the club’s record transfer.
With two goals in five appearances (both coming in the same Carabao Cup against Sheffield United) for the target man, and two assists in five league games for Riyad Mahrez so far this season, last year’s struggles appear to be repeating themselves, which has been noticed.
According to Le Buteur in Algeria, neither Leicester player has received a call up for the upcoming international break, with the website claiming from a ‘well informed source’ their manager, Lucas Alcaraz, has decided against including them this time around.
While their performances haven’t exactly been spectacular, the local outlet hints that off the pitch issues could also be behind the Spaniard’s choice, although what those could be isn’t specified.
A ‘revolution’ is taking place within the Algeria national team, with changes on the way, and it appears Islam Slimani and Riyad Mahrez’s exclusion could be one of them.
