Leicester City’s dream start to the 20/21 season came crashing down today with a 0-3 home defeat to West Ham. Here’s what went wrong.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Leicester City on show this afternoon was a different beast entirely to the one that put five goals past Manchester City last week. The Foxes looked a shadow of themselves as they slumped to a 0-3 loss at the King Power Stadium, with goals from Michail Antonio, Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen sinking the East Midlanders’ early title charge.
Leicester didn’t register a shot on target in the game and looked totally outclassed by a Hammers team supposedly in a relegation dogfight. Considering Brendan Rodgers’ men fell to such a convincing scoreline, it’s clear that something wasn’t right in City’s approach to this game. Here’s FoL’s top five picks for what went wrong.
Formation, personnel and tactics
From the outset, it became very quickly apparent that Leicester City showed far too much respect to West Ham United. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old adage never change a winning team, but I’m sure an exception can be made when travelling from Manchester City away to West Ham at home (with no disrespect at all intended to the Hammers). The East London club have been tipped to struggle this season and playing three-at-the-back against a side that has a track record of utilising one up front just doesn’t make sense. As usual, the Foxes dominated possession, but struggled to break down West Ham’s defence with only two central midfielders in Papy Mendy and Youri Tielemans.
Stranger still, the Foxes’ four wide players in Rodgers’ 3-4-3 were seldom used as Leicester seemed insistent on trying to split the Hammers’ back three with long balls to Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes, with limited success at best. Considering this, I can’t help feeling that there was a mismatch between Rodgers’ choice of tactics and formation, with too much of creative burden placed on Tielemans in the 3-4-3. If Leicester had approached this game with a 4-1-4-1 formation with Dennis Praet joining his compatriot in midfield, then we might have been looking at different result today.
Second-half syndrome
Any long-term Leicester City supporter will likely be familiar with the phenomenon of being utterly dreadful in the first half, then turning on the charm in the second, a sort of ‘second-half syndrome,’ if you will. Ten of Leicester’s twelve goals this season have come in the second half, while just last week, Rodgers’ men limped to a 1-1 draw with Manchester City at half time courtesy of a Jamie Vardy penalty, before ruthlessly adding four to their tally in the second half. Unfortunately, the East Midlands Club left themselves with far too much to do on this occasion, going 0-2 down inside of 35 minutes.
If you get into half time at 1-1 or even 0-1 it’s a different game, but coming back from two goals down is a big ask. It’s not really clear what causes this problem for Leicester, but it’s been there for as long as I can remember. It’s persisted home and way, through changes of players, managers and staff and seems to haunt the East Midlanders on games they should be taking supposedly easy points. Any team can come back from 0-1 down, after all, this is the Premier League- but unfortunately today’s match adds itself to the long list of occasions where Leicester left themselves with a mountain to climb far too early on.
Man City hangover?
I can’t imagine what the atmosphere was like in the dressing room last week after Leicester’s 2-5 demolition of Manchester City. I wouldn’t blame any of the Leicester players if they were riding high all week- I know I was! Toppling one of the most successful teams in recent history is a statement of an ambitious club if there ever was one. However, it seems as though this giant-slaying seems to have left a sort of hangover on Leicester’s squad, as it has done in the past.
Cast your mind back to December 2018, and you might remember historic successive wins against Chelsea and Manchester City in the Premier League, before being brought hurtling back down to Earth with a 0-1 loss to relegation battlers Cardiff City. Similarly, after spanking Southampton 0-9 away from home last season, Leicester fell to a 1-2 defeat in the reverse fixture. If we can take anything from these matches and Leicester’s loss today, it’s that Leicester suffer from a sort of cockiness after big wins, leaving them severely underestimating their opponents.
What’s more, the overall quality of Leicester’s play today was poor. On numerous occasions Jamie Vardy or Harvey Barnes looked to break through, but consistently sloppy long balls from the midfield rendered their efforts fruitless. Meanwhile, the defence looked half asleep all game, with the Hammers’ second goal a complete farce. If Leicester want to get back to winning ways against Aston Villa, then they’d better get return to the same sharpness on show against Man City last week.
Leicester City don’t have a plan B
For the first ten minutes or so, I was fairly confident in Leicester’s ability to fell the Hammers today. Long balls seemed to test the pace of the Londoners’ back three and stretch them out wide, while David Moyes’ men couldn’t forge much of a foothold in City’s half. However, as time passed, the East London club seemed to settle into the game much more as they figured out Rodgers’s approach and grew in confidence.
The Hammers’ back three scuppered through ball after though ball from the Foxes, to the point where it looked almost routine for them. Despite this, in addition to going 0-2 down inside of 35 minutes, Leicester didn’t make a change until 55 minutes in, when Daniel Amartey was forced off through injury. Kelechi Iheanacho came on for Ayoze Pérez ten minutes later, but City’s approach still didn’t seem to change.
Leicester can be rather lacklustre when attacking from the wings and resultantly seemed insistent on playing through the middle, becoming predictable and easily dealt with by Moyes’ men. If the Foxes don’t add more strings to their bow this season through fresh signings or tactics, then they might find themselves easily countered by their Premier League contemporaries.
The Foxes still struggle breaking down low blocks
As mentioned in my last point, Leicester City can be lacklustre at the best of times when attacking from the wings. On top of this, Jamie Vardy’s quality through the middle is proving to be a double-edged sword, as Leicester’s wing play now seems sorely underdeveloped in comparison. Once again, today’s match can draw likeness to the Cardiff game of 2018. In the ‘bigger’ fixtures leading up to both games, Leicester were the underdogs, utilising vast amounts of space on the counter-attack, while in the games where Leicester are favourites, they enjoyed more possession but did little to convert this into goals.
It seems that the Foxes got a taste of their own medicine today, as they proved completely ineffective breaking through the middle of the Hammers’ back three, with no options out wide. If Leicester truly want to kick on and establish themselves as a member of the ‘big six’, then they need to become more comfortable breaking down ‘bigger’ and ‘smaller’ opponents.
Two years later, Leicester City are still struggling with many of the problems that plagued them in 2018, but nonetheless look a much better side. With the Europa League on the horizon and a favourable group draw, Leicester had better dispel their apparent losing mentality when they enter a match as favourites sooner rather than later.