Claudio Ranieri believes the promise he made to Leicester City’s owners at the start of last season to stay with the club in the event of relegation should mean that his loyalty is repaid during a hugely disappointing second campaign, yet there is growing unrest among players and staff about the team’s predicament and the Italian’s management style in the face of a crisis.

Although there is no suggestion that Ranieri’s job is under immediate threat, the Premier League champions are now just two points clear of the relegation zone after winning only one of their past eight league matches and the spotlight is starting to fall on the manager as much as his underperforming players.

In a season that has badly unravelled, the Guardian has learned that Ranieri has become increasingly distant from members of his backroom team and is in danger of losing his grip on the dressing room, where some of the tactical changes and selection decisions have left players scratching their heads. Ranieri has made alterations in a desperate attempt to try to engender a reaction from a team who are clearly struggling and short of confidence, yet players have been left bewildered at times.

Team spirit has also suffered and that is not just a product of poor results. It is understood there was a strange incident after one match when the players were told that their opponents had been briefed beforehand about problems with egos and bad attitudes in the Leicester squad. That story caused a storm because it was alleged that the information had initially come via someone in the Leicester camp.

Ranieri is 65 years old and has been managing long enough to know that it is never a smooth ride when results turn, but he badly needs to galvanise a group of players who are in danger of becoming the first top-flight champions to be relegated since Manchester City in 1938.

Leicester play Manchester United at home on Sunday and then host Derby County in an FA Cup fourth-round replay on Wednesday, yet the critical game in everyone’s mind is the trip to Swansea City on Sunday week. Swansea are now behind Leicester only on goal difference. The Midlands club have lost their past three league games and are yet to score a top-flight goal in 2017, with Ranieri now second favourite to be the next Premier League manager dismissed. “Everything is possible,” Ranieri said, when it was put to him that there was a feeling in football that he was “unsackable” because of last season.

Asked whether he felt he should not be under pressure given his extraordinary title success, Ranieri replied: “Look, it’s not my philosophy to think about this. If my thoughts go there, I remember what was said by the vice-chairman [Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha] the first time I met him: ‘If we go down, you stay with us?’ And I said: ‘Yes.’ Now why [should] I have to think about this? I’m thinking to fight and to survive, that’s it.”

Although Ranieri maintained ahead of the United game that his playing style is “always the same”, he has chopped and changed the side and altered the system far more this season, on occasions at extremely short notice. When Leicester travelled to Copenhagen in the Champions League, the first anyone knew that they were playing a 3-4-3 system was less than two hours before kick-off.

In the 3-0 Premier League defeat at home against Chelsea last month, players were visibly confused at times as to what was being asked of them. The following week Ranieri opted for a midfield diamond against Southampton, when Leicester were again beaten 3-0. There is a feeling that Leicester have moved away from what made them successful last season, becoming too preoccupied with opponents rather than playing to their own strengths.

For all that, there is no escaping the fact that the players must also take their share of the blame. Key individuals have not come close to hitting the standards they set last season. Riyad Mahrez, the PFA player of the year last season, has been unrecognisable from the winger who tormented defenders. Jamie Vardy has scored only five times. Danny Drinkwater’s form has suffered, and Wes Morgan and Robert Huth are a long way from being that impenetrable partnership at the back.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to improve, from Ranieri to the players. “I know only one way: if you are a loser in this moment, you go down,” the Leicester manager said. “If you are a fighter in the bad moment you show your strength. Now is our moment to show our strength.”