How West Ham defeated Leicester 3-0: tactical analysis

Leicester City couldn’t make club history by winning all four of their opening Premier League games, as West Ham United defeated the Foxes, 0-3, at the King Power Stadium. The adulation of last weekend to the disappointment today, what went wrong for Brendan Rodgers’ Foxes?

Considering Leicester City’s struggles at breaking down deep defensive blocks, and their comfort of exploiting space behind the defensive line through counterattacks, one could argue this game was always going to be “more difficult” than last weekends victory at The Etihad.

This is quite an easy assessment to make, given that the Foxes were outplayed by the Hammers, and the reverse happened against Manchester City. But, it does hold true to the natural comforts of the squad – being very good in quick transitions, rather than breaking down a low-block.

The Leicester City faithful can be quite annoyed by this. Undeniably, the Foxes have enough quality in the midfield and attack – regardless of the composition – to play through the lines of a deep-block.

Frustratingly, the two best midfielders to help deconstruct a deep-block for Leicester City is James Maddison and Dennis Praet, who were both absent due to injuries. The former is exceptional at finding passes through the line, even under a lot of pressure, the latter is the best-player at the club for “facilitating” attacks.