Riyad Mahrez has the post-Christmas blues
Leicester attacker Riyad Mahrez has experienced a serious dip in form since Christmas
It’s distinctly possible that the fairy tale story of Leicester’s season might be starting to lose a bit of steam. If that is true, Fox fans need look no further than Riyad Mahrez’s post-Christmas dip in form.
Prior to Christmas, Mahrez was arguably the best player in the Premier League. While Jamie Vardy regularly stole the headlines for Leicester, Mahrez was usually the team’s best player. His creativity on the wing provided Vardy room to operate while also pounding in goals for himself.
Perhaps he didn’t get what he fancied for Christmas, but the Algerian wide man just hasn’t been the same after the 25th of December. It’s not that he’s been terrible, he just hasn’t been nearly the star he was earlier in the season.
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While most fans and pundits have focused on Mahrez’s damaging penalty misses, his problems have gone deeper than that. His performances have looked disjointed and awkward over his last five matches. The five Premier League matches that Leicester has competed in after Christmas.
Mahrez has failed to register either a goal or an assist in those five matches. Even worse, his Whoscored.com rating has dipped below 6.5 in three of the matches. That’s quite a drop from a player whose average was hovering close to eight for most of the early season.
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It’s no coincidence that Leicester has only managed to win once in those five matches. The good news is that they’ve managed to tread enough water to stay even with Arsenal on points atop the Premier League table, but their form has to be concerning.
Without Mahrez at the top of his game, scoring goals is going to become infinitely more difficult for Vardy and the rest of the Fox attackers. As many goals as Vardy scored early in the year, opposing defenses still spent a lot of energy trying to contain Mahrez. If the Algerian falters, the Englishman will suffer.
Some believe that opposing defenses have started to focus more on Mahrez and that’s contributed to his drop in form. I think that’s a convenient oversimplification of his struggles. You can’t tell me that it took the best managers in the world several months to adjust to Mahrez’s torrid form. The adjustments to his talented play began well before Christmas.
Rekindling Mahrez’s game has to be Leicester’s top priority moving forward. With Jamie Vardy back to full fitness it’s imperative that the team get on a roll to stay atop the league. If they fall off the pace I don’t think they will have enough self-belief to recover.
If they have any hope of winning the Premier League they must do so by getting a lead and holding off the opposition. They don’t have the experience necessary to mount a late charge to overcome one of the “big” clubs.
Riyad Mahrez was one of the Premier League’s brightest stars until the lights from Christmas trees all throughout England were snuffed out. He will need to find a way to rediscover that magic and fast, if Leicester is going to stay in the Premier League title race.