Marti Cifuentes must take Jordan James action at Leicester City – top earner should be dropped | OneFootball

Leicester City boss Marti Cifuentes should make the decision to drop Boubakary Soumare for Jordan James in their midfield.

Leicester City have returned to the Championship under a bit of a cloud, but the Foxes do have the hope of the excellent coaching of Marti Cifuentes to cling to, to suggest they could be a serious promotion contender this season.

The Foxes were relegated from the Premier League and there were suggestions that they could be hit with a points deduction by the EFL and, whilst that hasn’t come to fruition, a very quiet summer transfer window indicated a less than ideal situation off the pitch, especially with Cifuentes replacing Ruud van Nistelrooy later into the summer than usual for a pre-season managerial change.

The final few weeks of the summer transfer window did eventually see a lot of their bigger names depart, with Conor Coady and Wilfred Ndidi leading the exodus with moves to Wrexham and Besiktas, respectively.

They also then sold Mads Hermansen to West Ham United before the sales of Kasey McAteer and James Justin to Ipswich Town and Leeds United, with Bilal El Khannouss joining Stuttgart.

Three of their four signings came on the final day of the window, with only Asmir Begovic joining on a free transfer before the loan signings of Julian Carranza, Jordan James and Aaron Ramsey.

One player who remained at the King Power Stadium, perhaps surprisingly, is Boubakary Soumare; and he is someone who must now be displaced in the side by the aforementioned James.

Boubakary Soumare is a symbol of Leicester’s problems

The bloated Leicester squad that has been assembled in recent seasons it a bit of a mish mash of recruitment, and Boubakary Soumare is perhaps an excellent example of that.

Probably still showing a level of technical ability, on his day, that is above the second-tier, the 26-year-old former France youth international has struggled during his time in Leicester.

He joined the Foxes from Lille in the summer of 2021 but has rarely been a nailed down starter for the club and he even spent the 2023/24 campaign, their previous Championship season, on loan at Sevilla in La Liga.

According to Capology, Soumare is among Leicester’s highest earners, too, with a reported wage of £80,000 – only Harry Winks, on £90,000, supposedly earns more at the club.

Winks is someone who has already been dropped by Cifuentes this season, and Soumare should follow him to the bench so that Jordan James can partner Oliver Skipp in the middle of the park.

Skipp hasn’t necessarily torn things up since joining from Tottenham Hotspur last summer but his industry compliments a Cifuentes style of football, and he has previously proven he can handle the demands of the Championship when excelling on loan at Norwich City in a title-winning campaign in the past.

Jordan James can provide energy to a lethargic Leicester squad

The lethargy displayed by Soumare is something that new signing Jordan James, who has joined on a season-long loan deal from Stade Rennais, should make amends for.

The Wales international, who came through the academy at Birmingham City before being sold by Blues to Rennes last summer, didn’t have a great stint in Ligue 1, but he has the potential to assert himself as one of the best midfielders in England’s second-tier.

A prime example of what he may be able to offer ahead of Soumare is a defensive awareness and commitment to the tackle, as displayed by a last-ditch challenge to deny Oxford United a late winner on his debut in a 2-2 draw at the Kassam Stadium when he was a second-half substitute replacing Soumare.

James provides a dynamism and an aggression both on and off the ball, and his style of play seems ideally suited to the intensity and energy that Cifuentes expects to play with.

The Spaniard has got some impressive results as Leicester boss but performances have remained disjointed, and continuing to make big decisions like dropping so-called stars for players more suited to his system is something he is going to have to do to improve the level of cohesion.