Claudio Ranieri will suffer Sevilla hiding - but Leicester players are to blame

The Champions League has been a rare opportunity for escapism for Claudio Ranieri and Leicester City this season, but on Wednesday night there will be no hiding place against one of the best teams in Europe. A hammering at the hands of Sevilla would extend the waking nightmare of 2017, and leave Ranieri in an even more perilous position.

Even if Leicester's Champions League expiry date was set when they drew Sevilla in the last 16, and progress in Europe is not what the team will ultimately be judged on, their continental form has been the only bright spot in a dismal season. The pressure will only increase if they get the kind of beating I expect them to suffer in Spain.

I honestly don’t know if Ranieri can turn things around at this point – not after eight games without a win, six of which have been defeats. He’s never really been in this situation, certainly not in the Premier League, where he was challenging at the top of the table with Chelsea. Throughout his career, he’s managed big clubs and taken on big challenges but nothing quite like this, where the most incredible of highs has been followed by a devastating and prolonged low.

He deserves time to try to get it right, and get Leicester out of trouble after earning that faith from the board given what transpired last season. Even at Ranieri’s age, it is a dramatic learning curve that will make him a better manager. Whether it will spare Leicester relegation is another question.

Sevilla is the immediate challenge in front of him and people say the match will be tough, but that is a huge understatement. Sevilla are one of the form teams in Europe at present, and are only three points off top spot in La Liga. They have a manager, in Jorge Sampaoli, who is being mentioned as a possible contender for the Barcelona job this summer.

I watched Sampaoli up close during the World Cup finals in Brazil, when he was Chile manager, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. The guy was unbelievable. He is a South American version of Antonio Conte, micro-managing on the touchline, and the reaction he gets from his players is similar to the reaction Conte gets. He is simply a superb manager.

Sevilla were a good team under Unai Emery, especially at home, but I think they have taken a step forward. Leicester, meanwhile, have been more than useless away from home this season, and it could get very ugly on Wednesday night. In my opinion, there is no chance of Leicester getting a result.

It would require a massive wake-up call for a group of players who have been sleepwalking through the season. They haven’t shown any inclination to sit bolt upright and shake themselves out of their stupor so in reality all we can expect is Leicester to return home with their tails between their legs after a massive drubbing.

You can always pinpoint the manager, it’s easy to do, but in this case you can’t look anywhere else than the players. They have sat back on their fat wallets, living the high life, but they have forgotten the fundamentals. At the highest level, you are judged as a footballer on your desire to replicate your success, and I think a lot of them have got their one medal and they think they have done it.

I can’t think of one single player who has really done themselves justice this season. It’s like they’ve all thrown the towel in. When you start hearing rumours that the manager has lost the dressing room then you know for certain that the players are trying to find any excuse to disguise their own failings.

Yes, Ranieri could have been stronger. He could have cast sentiment aside earlier, and dropped some of the players who won him the title last season. He has admitted as much. Sentiment doesn’t last long in football and you need to be ruthless.

Even after winning the league last season, Ranieri should have realised that some of these players would not be able to do it all over again. He should have waved them goodbye. Notably, I think at least three of the back four shouldn’t have had another chance in the Premier League. Danny Simpson was one who played above himself, and had a lot of good fortune in how he defended, but he was far from alone.

It’s too easy just to say that the big difference is the absence of N’Golo Kante – you have to look beyond that and not just state the obvious. I think they have taken their foot off the gas; in fact, I don’t think they have even got back in the car. They don’t have the desire to go the extra mile, as they did throughout last season. They started to believe the hype, and their consistency levels have completely gone.

Ranieri might be tempted to almost start again with a whole new team – Leicester have bought seven players since the end of last season, as well as bringing through Demarai Gray – but in all honesty, it might be too late already. If they do stay up though, he will have to completely wipe the slate clean and begin again.

There were alarm bells ringing when Jamie Vardy turned down Arsenal as it said to me that he is happy being a big fish in a small pond. His game hasn’t changed, and maybe can’t change any more, and defenders know how to play against him. The result is that he has scored only five goals all season – three of which were in one game against Manchester City.

If he had gone to Arsenal he could have learned a new tactical system and improved himself, lifted his game up. That he stayed with Leicester hinted at complacency, and we’ve seen that come into effect this season.

Riyad Mahrez hasn’t turned up at all either, but it’s not just the two reigning players of the year. It’s also the less well-known squad players who wake up gazing at their Premier League medals every morning.

Winning the league was a historic achievement and nothing can ever take that away from the players, but they are returning to their true level. A beautiful anomaly is just that, and Wednesday's match against Sevilla will make that very clear.