Leicester City’s search for a Premier League win – during it’s post lockdown era – finally came to a close, as a double from Jamie Vardy encapsulated a 3-0 victory versus Crystal Palace.
In recent times, Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace have developed the reputation of being a “bogey” team for the Foxes – especially at The King Power stadium, but a sagacious tactical adjustment from Brendan Rodgers altered the balance in Leicester City’s favour.
For only the 11th time in Rodgers’ career, he chose a starting XI in a 3-4-1-2 formation. Throughout Rodgers’ entire managerial career he’s only picked a three at the back formation 64 times out of his 400 games (16%). The two key points of reasoning for why he made this decision, are to ensure that firstly, the Foxes had three central midfielders whilst also providing a partner for Jamie Vardy upfront. Ordinarily, teams would have to sacrifice one for the other.
The reason Rodgers wanted both are simple. The three central midfielders – Wilfred Ndidi, Youri Tielemans, and as a more advanced central player, Ayoze Pérez – enable his possession philosophy. You can create numerical advantages in the middle, to help progress the ball, and there should always be a passing lane opportunity for either the centre backs or fullbacks to utilise.
The two strikers offer a couple of other positives. There’s more advanced options for connecting play – of which Kelechi Iheanacho is superb at, hence his commitment to wanting the role in the pocket between the forwards and midfielders. Consequently, there isn’t just a sole focal point, Vardy and Iheanacho can both be used and there was additional decoy run from Ayoze Pérez, which made Palace’s defensive lives quite miserable.