Something strange has been happening recently at the Walkers Stadium, home of my team, Leicester City. After years of functional, grinding, long-ball play, football has unexpectedly broken out.
Really, I suppose the credit has to go to Sven Goran Eriksson. Quite a few people were sceptical when he took over, expecting him to stick around for a month or two before disappearing with a nice redundancy package, but it looks like he's going to stay the course. And the changes that he's brought about, in a relatively short space of time, have been pretty remarkable.
First of all, Sven had to stop the rot that had set in during Paolo Sousa's brief and unhappy reign. That didn't take long. Since his appointment, our only home defeat has been to Premier League WBA in the Carling Cup, and we've gone from bottom of the Championship table in September to eighth in February, looking a good bet for the Play-offs.
But it's been the transformation of our playing style that has been the most amazing. Gone is our traditional 4-4-2, replaced by a fluid 4-3-3 formation, and suddenly we're scoring goals for fun. Since the start of November we've hit 2,2,1,5,2,2,2,4 and 4 goals in our home games, chalked up wins against promotion-chasing Forest and Swansea and held Manchester City in the FA Cup. Don't say it too loud, but we've started to be entertaining. Last weekend, the crowd were shouting "Ole" as the passes flew from one blue shirt to another. It was partly tongue-in-cheek, and we were playing Barnsley, but, hey, you've got to start somewhere.
The only slightly disappointing aspect of this turnaround is the fact that it has been achieved with a team increasingly filled with Premier League loan players. Many of the stalwarts of the Nigel Pearson era have found themselves relegated to the bench, or have even left the club. It's a shame, but it's the nature of the modern game. And while the new recruits are showing such commitment to the cause, and the football is this good, who's complaining?
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