Leicester City’s European-football dream had already been confirmed prior to Manchester United’s visit. However, the Champions League was still up for contention. FoL analyses tactics and prospects.
The 2-0 loss confirmed Europa League football for the Foxes, whilst the result solidified the Red Devil’s as Champions League competitors next season, even with the 14-point advantage that Brendan Rodgers’ men had over their opposition after 25 games this season.
The result has been met with despair, and understandably so, Leicester City really have plummeted from the great heights of the first-half of the season, but a lot of contextual factors have taken their toll. I strongly believe, a Foxes’ side with Ricardo Pereira, Çağlar Söyüncü, Ben Chilwell, and James Maddison has enough pedigree and experience to see off the opponents in the Project Restart campaign.
Leicester City’s chances of taking more points against; Watford, Brighton, and Bournemouth, would have been greatly higher had all of those key players been involved. Alas, the Foxes missed out on Champions League football by four points, and given they only took two points from the aforementioned fixtures, it would’ve been entirely perceivable to take anywhere from six-to-nine points from those games, and this would’ve been enough.
There’s also the argument that squad depth was the most important asset a team could possess post-restart, and the East-Midlands club have always struggled in that area, even more so with an extensive injury list piling up. I fully anticipate, Rodgers will invest in rotational players – and a couple of marquee signings.
However, this article isn’t about the “if”, “but’s” and “maybe’s”, as pressing of an issue that seems to be for the entire Leicester City fan base, instead I want to dissect the tactical decision-making of the final game, specifically looking at Hamza Choudhury’s utilisation and what he facilitated by being another central midfielder.
First and foremost, it should be addressed that Rodgers use of Choudhury was at the expense of playing either Harvey Barnes or Ayoze Pérez in the hole behind the two strikers – Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho. This could be seen as a negative change, and I agree that playing without a connecting player did neutralise Youri Tielemans’ impact. But, looking two-dimensionally, the change did have positive implications.
Naturally, the team setup in a 3-5-2. This is similar to the 3-4-1-2 of recent fixtures, but instead of the player in the whole (the 1), Rodgers dropped this player to sit alongside the central midfield duo, to form a triumvirate.
This allowed Leicester City two separate transitional formations; one for attacking and one for defending. In attack, the Foxes personnel facilitated a 4-3-3; Luke Thomas would slot into left-back and James Justin the right-back. The midfield would be composed of the central-midfield trio, and Marc Albrighton would push into an advanced right-wing position supporting Iheanacho and Vardy.
This is supported by Albrighton’s heat-map which was more advanced than his wing-back counterpart, Thomas. This isn’t to say every attack was formulated using the 4-3-3, a turnover in possession may result in Leicester City attacking in their “defensive formation”, but this was definitely a conscious decision from Rodgers – whilst also providing additional support for Wilfred Ndidi in regaining possession.
Out of possession, the Foxes seemed to play a low-block in a 5-3-2 formation. Thomas and Albrighton dropped into positions that aligned with the three centre-backs; Wes Morgan, Jonny Evans, and Justin, making a deep five at the back. These reserved positions, allowed the central defenders to step up when Manchester United’s forwards received the ball facing their own goal. This neutralised how Ole Gunnar Solskjær wanted to build attacks, as he plays into his forwards feet to connect the midfielders into their attacks. For almost the entire game, this worked extremely well.
Which Leicester City players impressed?
A special mention to Thomas and Justin, whose performances were exemplary at the back. Respectively, they had to deal with Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood – two of the most inform and exciting players in the league, and neither managed to imprint themselves on the game. Thomas disabled Greenwood’s attempts at cutting inside to shoot, nor allowed him to use the width. Instead, Aaron Wan-Bissaka saw a lot of the ball, as it was his overlaps from right-back that attempted to undo Thomas’ work – albeit unsuccessfully.
I think Justin is a good option as an outside centre-back in a three. He boasts exceptional recovery pace, of which he used versus Anthony Martial on multiple occasions. In possession, Justin is extremely confident – at times, maybe a little too confident. But, given the magnitude of the fixture and the importance of his role, the 22-year-old excelled under difficult circumstances.
I felt that Leicester City did lose slight attacking control replacing Iheanacho for Pérez, but in Rodgers’ defence, the Nigerian was beginning to look leggy, and high-pressing Manchester United was causing the Red Devil’s a lot of issues. Fresh legs should’ve compounded their problems, but it actually removed the progressive passing option Iheanacho is so good at offering.
It’s easy to use hindsight and dissect the decisions of Rodgers, but in the high-pressure moment, I didn’t disagree with his substitutions. If I was to be pedantic, I’d like to have seen Harvey Barnes slightly earlier on and I also disagreed with the sentiment that we should “hang on” until the second-half drinks break before pushing for a winner – but in the majority, I thought the Foxes were unfortunate in defeat.
There’s a host of impressive, historic clubs competing in the Europa League and it’s a chance for Leicester City to solidify themselves on the European map.