Why are last season's relegated trio struggling in the Championship?

This week's Championship action has not just deepened long-standing hangovers suffered by the three clubs relegated from the Premier League but pointed to issues more wide-reaching than simply having to adapt to life back in the second tier.

Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton all succumbed to defeats in midweek, meaning that for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign, all three recently relegated sides sit outside of the top six of the Championship at this stage of the season.

As unbeaten leaders Coventry City show no signs of letting up, and second-placed Middlesbrough remain close in pursuit, Marti Cifuentes, Kieran McKenna and Will Still have plenty to ponder if they are to find a formula to claim an immediate return to the top flight with their respective sides.

The Championship is a relentless, unforgiving division. However, a run of form can quickly see a side fly up the table in next to no time.

With more than 100 Championship points still on offer, BBC Sport examines the main factors behind the three sides' sluggish starts and whether they are showing any signs of turning around their fortunes sooner rather than later.

Leicester City - 8th - 11 played - 17 points (W4, D5, L2).

Leicester boss Cifuentes was not afraid to speak his mind following his side's 2-1 defeat by Hull City at the MKM Stadium.

Conceding two goals in the first half an hour on Humberside, he lamented a dismal opening period in which his side were dominated by their hosts before a late salvage operation attempt ended in vain.

"Bad game, really bad first half. Probably the worst we have played so far this season," Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"I'm not happy at all with the performance. It's far from the standards that I want - it's far from the vision that I have for this club, and that makes me feel very angry."

After being placed on gardening leave by previous club QPR, Cifuentes took the Leicester hot seat in July following the departure of Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Spaniard was given less than four weeks of pre-season to work with his new side before the season kicked-off, and was limited to adding to his squad with free transfers and loan deals.

Long-standing strikers have also stuttered.

While the iconic Jamie Vardy departed for Italy, Patson Daka has failed to step up. He has not scored for the club this calendar year, and has netted just once in 45 league games since February 2024.

Daka, Jordan Ayew and Argentine loanee Julian Carranza have scored one goal in 27 league appearances between them this season.

"Life for Leicester City back in the Championship hasn't kicked off the way they would have liked," said BBC Radio Leicester's Owynn Palmer-Atkin.

"Firstly, it's important to recognise that this is a completely different scenario to the beginning of the 2023-24 campaign.

"The Foxes had a better squad, a successful transfer window, and a manager [Enzo Maresca] who had an entire pre-season to work with his players on his very detailed style of play.

"This time around, there was a delay before proceedings could even get going. Ruud van Nistelrooy probably knew his time was up at the end of May, but he was still in post until days before the new pre-season campaign was due to begin.

"A couple of weeks later, and Marti Cifuentes arrives. I do believe that this has had a significant impact on his ability to work with the players enough to instill the gameplan, the tactics, the philosophy ready for the beginning of the season.

"Alongside the manager, the Foxes started the season with no new outfield signings and had to wait until much later in the window for the new faces to arrive. Put that alongside first-team players, at the time, lobbying for moves away - it created a feeling of uncertainty.

"On the pitch though, this season, is the season no Foxes fan wanted to see - a Leicester squad without Jamie Vardy in it.

"For so long, even when things weren't going well, he was the man to be relied on. The man to dig Leicester out of trouble. To score the goals. To lead the team. To be the all-encompassing legend.

"There's no doubt, the hole in which he's left, could never be truly filled."

Ipswich Town - 14th - 10 played (1 abandoned) - 13 points (W3, D4, W3).

Since Ipswich's first East Anglian derby win against struggling bitter rivals Norwich City for 16 years, McKenna's side have experienced back-to-back defeats by Middlesbrough and Charlton Athletic.

Unlike Cifuentes, McKenna was given licence to loosen the purse strings in the summer and - with help from the sales of Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson - spent a total of near £40m on players, including Kasey McAteer, Marcelino Nunez and Norwegian forward Sindre Walle Egeli, the Championship's record transfer signing.

Having labelled his side's display in the 3-0 midweek defeat by Charlton as "unacceptable", McKenna has so far struggled to get his players to gel as he looks to recreate the form which made them such a formidable opponent in their 2023-24 promotion-winning campaign.

He has credit in the bank after guiding Town back to the Premier League following two decades away, but he faces an important, and arguably his most testing period, as he approaches his four-year anniversary in charge of the club.

However, there is a feeling that he is yet to decide on his favoured starting XI - having made seven changes on Tuesday from the side that lost at Boro just four days prior.

"While we all expected Liam Delap - and probably Omari Hutchinson - to leave, the departures of promotion stalwarts Sam Morsy, Cameron Burgess, Conor Chaplin, Massimo Luongo, Axel Tuanzebe, Nathan Broadhead and Luke Woolfenden has undoubtedly had a huge impact," said BBC Suffolk's Brenner Woolley.

"These were key men, both on and off the pitch, during Town's most successful period for decades.

"There was an incredible camaraderie in the group that secured back-to-back promotions - 'a band of brothers' as Chaplin described them.

"McKenna is currently trying to build a new team in one of the toughest, most relentless and unforgiving divisions in football. It will take time.

"I firmly believe it will be his finest achievement if he gets them up this season - and that is saying something given the wonderful job he did in taking them from League One to the Premier League in his first two full seasons as a manager.

"So far, performances have been patchy, as the numerous summer arrivals have taken time to adapt.

"Making six changes for the recent trip to Bristol City and then seven against Charlton in midweek also hasn't gone down well with fans."

He added: "I always felt bookmakers were being overly optimistic having them down as favourites to go straight back up, because of the scale of the revamp.

"That's not to say they won't, far from it, they still have 36 games to go. It's just going to be harder than a lot of people were predicting."

Southampton - 18th - 11 played - 12 points (W2, D6, L3).

When Southampton picked up a stoppage-time victory at home to Wrexham on the opening day of the season, you could have forgiven fans for getting a little carried away.

Coming off the back of a catastrophic Premier League campaign - which included just two wins and 30 defeats, as well as the earliest ever relegation during the Premier League era - hopes of better things to come were almost inevitable.

Since then, however, Saints have picked up just a solitary league win with goals proving hard to come by, with some fans unhappy with the team's slow build-up play.

In a frustrating 0-0 draw at home to Swansea City last weekend they did rack up 21 shots - with an xG of 3.26 - but Cameron Archer, Adam Armstrong and, most incredibly, Caspar Jander spurned gilt-edge chances to score.

It was a similar story in Tuesday's 3-1 defeat by Bristol City, with former manager Ralph Hasenhuttl also ominously pictured in the stands at Ashton Gate.

Still's first managerial job in England makes him and the direction of ownership group Sports Republic an obvious target for criticism.

"The last couple of games they have actually played quite good football and they've created good chances," said former Saints midfielder and BBC Solent summariser Jo Tessem.

"The big problem - and the most difficult thing in football - is to score goals.

"After Ross Stewart's injury they have struggled to find a way because he unlocked that problem that they've been having with the striker. Unfortunately, he is now injured until Christmas and that is not good news.

"But they have been creating a lot of chances. The improvement is in the play going forward, and getting the ball in the box, but they are not converting chances.

"Will Still is playing possession football in a different way, more aggressive than under Russell Martin.

"Bristol City sat back and defended in the first half and I think he is finding that a little tricky.

"The good sign is we should have won both matches [against Bristol City and Swansea] and we've created chances - that takes away one problem.

"Under Russell Martin, they could go 60, 70 minutes and there was no shot on target. At least now we are having chances. They are one step closer to success in my eyes."