How Leicester beat Sheffield United: tactical analysis
By James Bishop
How Leicester City kept their Champions League hopes alive by beating Sheffield United, the team who have conceded the second fewest goals in the division.
Brendan Rodgers‘ Leicester City team selection has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent times, and at first glance there was a big question mark to be raised.
Why was Kelechi Iheanacho dropped after being so impressive in recent matches? Well the answer was obvious a few minutes in.
Sheffield United play with a back three, a system the Foxes have been using recently, with the wide centre-backs bombing forward and outnumbering the opposing fullback. Playing a 3-5-2 would have simply played into United’s hands.
Playing Harvey Barnes and moving Ayoze Perez to the right hand side always meant that the Centre Backs were being marked out of the game, the play then stagnated and the long ball would come out. The additional benefit of playing Barnes is the extra pace to trouble any defence.
Due to injuries Leicester’s back three wasn’t exactly blessed with pace, but with United’s front two falling into that same category it played right into the Foxes hands. You get the feeling that any pace up front would cause many problems for Morgan and co.
Rodgers was calling for a reaction after an uncharacteristic collapse against Bournemouth, and he definitely got one.