Rodgers got it wrong, this is how Leicester should line-up

Brendan Rodgers got his team selection wrong for Leicester City v Everton, in multiple ways. This is how the Foxes should line-up.

Everyone is discussing on how Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers and his side are going to get out of this rut, with tactics, training and confidence at the forefront of those discussions. However, is it as simple as merely changes to the line-up?

The Northern Irishman has chopped and changed his team a lot since the restart, with little to show for it. But his team selection against Everton made no sense given the previous Foxes game against Chelsea.

Ayoze Perez was finally given a start and for once Leicester looked dangerous and capable of scoring a goal. The sharpness, the link up play and that extra little bit of quality was on show. Although, all was then lost when Perez was replaced by Marc Albrighton with half an hour left.

Starting Albrighton over Perez was bemusing given how much better the side played in the first half against the Blues with the Spaniard in the side.

Subsequently the City veteran started against Everton and offered nothing apart from a lot of seemingly aimless crosses into a box to an average height striker. Yet battling relatively large centre backs.  Just because Albrighton works hard is not a good enough reason for him to start, especially when you’re playing teams below.

Another mistake was putting James Maddison on the bench. With the risk of sounding like ‘your Dad’: if he is fit enough to be on the bench he is fit enough to start. Especially with a massively out of form Youri Tielemans beginning matches. In fact, the Belgian hasn’t played well for a number of months and looks shot of confidence.

Whereas his counterpart Dennis Praet is a reliable midfielder and will never be lower than a 6 out of 10, whilst having quality at his disposal. The difference when Praet was on the pitch was startling: the Foxes looked alive, looked quick and actually looked like scoring a goal.

How Leicester City should line-up

Reverting back to how Leicester City were on their impressive winning run is surely the logical thing to do: Praet, Wilfred Ndidi and Maddison in the midfield. In addition to Harvey Barnes, Vardy and Perez up front. Two strikers may seem correct when in search of goals, but when they have tried it  – bar the exception of Villa away – they look hopeless. Think back to Brighton a few games ago. 4-1-4-1 is the formation to go with.

It’s very easy to be deceived by a team’s performance when you’re chasing the game. How many times has Demarai Gray appeared effective coming on as a substitute and then disappointed when he gets a start? Rodgers tries to be too clever sometimes: if he keeps it simple, the proven quality will shine through and hopefully reignite the Champions League push.