Chris Sutton leaps to Russell Martin defence with Leicester City verdict

Chris Sutton believes the criticism placed on Russell Martin for his short time at Rangers is unfair, but claims he must turn things around at Leicester City.

Martin has won just one league game at the King Power Stadium since taking over in the summer, coming against Plymouth Argyle last week. He suffered his worst defeat in charge of City over the weekend when Oxford thrashed his side 4-0.

The humiliating defeat has left Leicester in the bottom half of the League One table and some calling for a premature change in the dugout. It comes after Martin lasted just 17 games at Rangers last season and was criticised for his style of play.

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However, Sutton believes the negativity around Martin's time in Scotland is unfair, but insists he needs to turn the tide at Leicester to avoid another dismissal. "The noise surrounding his exit at Rangers and how everything was piled onto Russell hasn't been fair," he said on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club.

"I mean, Rangers are such a big club but because of him being sacked in such a short space of time there, I think that Leicester fans have maybe cottoned on to what happened there. But that certainly wasn't all Russell at Rangers.

"This perception of him as a manager was the same at Southampton when he got them up to the Premier League. They played Newcastle [first game of the season] under Russell, they ended up losing, but played Newcastle off the park. And there were signs things would go okay.

"It's always going to be a difficult job. But he's a principled manager. He needs a result or two quickly to sort of turn the tide because I think Leicester fans have made their mind up with him and that's unfair.

"If there are a lot of young players within the squad, they need time to breathe and evolve. Leicester fans expect the team to go up, and that's his biggest problem."

He added: The job he went into at Leicester, because of the expectation this season is for them to bounce straight back and win the league, the youth situation and him mentioning that really isn't going to wash.

"You cannot lose 4-0 at home to Oxford. That's the biggest problem. He needs to turn it around and turn it around extremely quickly. There should still be enough experience within the team."