When Christmas rolled around at the end of 2022, things were looking pretty bleak for Leicester City Women. Lydia Bedford had been replaced the month before by manager Willie Kirk.
That had not seemed to help stop the rot as The Foxes sat bottom of the Women's Super League table at Christmas with zero points and seven losses from seven.
They had only scored two goals in the league up until that point and had just lost 8-0 at home to Chelsea.
But a remarkable turnaround in form, in 2023, helped the East Midlands side to a comfortable-looking tenth place finish. Leicester improved both in terms of points and league position on their first season in the WSL. They also set a record for being the first team to survive after being seven points adrift of safety.
So how did The Foxes manage to turn their season around? We will look at what they did right and what they need to improve on to keep moving forward into next season.
Player/Signing of the Season - Janina Leitzig
It is no coincidence that Leicester's upturn in form coincided with the arrival of goalkeeper Janina Leitzig.
The 24-year-old German goalkeeper arrived on loan from Bayern Munich in January and instantly shored up the defence, making her team a lot harder to score against.
Leitzig made an immediate impact keeping three clean sheets in her first five WSL games with another two clean sheets coming later in the campaign.
It goes without saying that having a solid and reliable goalkeeper in between the sticks helped give Leicester more confidence and assurance every time they took the pitch, and Leitzig was a big part of the squad in the second half of the season.
It is vital, if Leicester are to push on next season, that they look to make Leitzig's loan move permanent next year as a full season of Janina in goal may keep them out of a relegation battle altogether.
Picking up points from those around them
With the WSL being the way it is, if you are one of the teams that finds yourself near the bottom of the league table, it is vital that you take points off the teams around you.
Naturally, sides like Leicester and Reading struggle against teams such as Arsenal and Manchester United, and so they need to make sure they take the opportunities available to them.
And this season, this has been something Leicester have been good at. In their four games against Reading and Brighton, Leicester picked up three wins and suffered just one defeat.
Them nine points are a big chunk of the 16 points Leicester finished on, and had their 2-1 win at home to Reading gone the other way, Leicester would have finished bottom of the league and been relegated.
As The Foxes move into next season, it is vital that they ensure that they keep picking up wins from the teams around them, and if they can start adding a few more scalps from teams higher up the league, then they should be fine.
Match of the season - Leicester 4 Liverpool 0
As mentioned above, it is important that, we moving forward, Leicester get into the habit of beating teams a bit higher up the league table.
And when Liverpool, a team who were comfortably mid table and never really threatened by relegation, visited the King Power Stadium on April 29th, Leicester put in arguably their most impressive performance of the season as they ran out 4-0 winners.
Having already beaten Liverpool 1-0 away from home, The Foxes completed their only double of the season as goals from Josie Green, Carrie Jones, Ashleigh Plumtre and Missy Goodwin secured a very impressive win.
As Leicester go into the 2023/24 season, arguably the next stage of their development as a club is to start competing on a regular basis with those mid table teams such as Everton, Tottenham, West Ham and Liverpool and if they can do that then they may have an even better season next year.
Lacking a striker?
One of Leicester's biggest issues during the 2022/23 season was the lack of an out and out goalscorer. While Willie Kirk and the Leicester hierarchy moved to address the goalkeeping issue in January, they never really found a consistent goalscorer.
In the WSL last season, Leicester scored just 15 goals in 22 games and finished on a goal difference of -33. Comfortably the lowest amount in the league. For comparison, Reading scored 23 and Brighton scored 26.
In all competitions this season, Sam Tierney was the top scorer at the club with four goals in 26 games, followed by Hannah Cain on three and five players on two goals.
This is an issue that must be addressed over the summer if Leicester want to be competitive in the WSL next season. The Foxes need to be on the look out for a goal scorer that will keep defenders busy next season and if the could add a ten goal a year striker to their squad that could be extremely useful.
One to watch in 2023/24 - Hannah Cain?
Having scored her first international goal for Wales in April 2023, could this be the catalyst to spur Hannah Cain on next season?
Having finished as the clubs second highest top scorer with three goals, Cain will be looking to build on this into next season and come away with more goals.
And Cain has found herself in some good positions this year but has not been able to convert her chances so if she could just improve on her finishing a little bit more, she will come away with goals next season.
Turning defeats into draws
Leicester's record in the WSL last season shows they came away with five wins, one draw and 16 defeats. The only other side to draw one game was Chelsea.
If Leicester were able to grind out a few more results next season and come away with four or five more draws where previously they were losing, that would considerably increase their points tally and move them away from the threat of relegation.
We are looking at a big summer ahead for Willie Kirk and his side. It is vital that they look to strengthen their squad and improve in key positions, especially with the recent news that twelve squad players are leaving this summer.
We can confirm that 12 First Team players depart Belvoir Drive this summer as the Club begins preparations for the 2023/24 WSL season.
— LCFC Women (@LCFC_Women) June 6, 2023
The Club would like to place on record its appreciation to all for their contribution and wish them the very best in their careers.
Leicester will be desperate not to start the season the same way they did this year but if they could continue their 2023 form into next season, they might be in for quite a pleasing season.