How West Ham defeated Leicester 3-0: tactical analysis

Attacking players need to make movements, even if they’re not found. This can be increasingly frustrating and a selfless act at times, but it’s fundamental to breaking down a low-block. Unfortunately, the loss of confidence from conceding the goal, compiled with movement that wasn’t being rewarded, made both inverted wingers become very predictable in their movements. Thus stopping the progression of play from the midfield.

Again, I want to reiterate, West Ham United’s tactical deployment worked to perfection and they made finding space in these half-spaces extremely difficult, but it’s in those games that this specific movement is needed the most.

I think football fans can be very reactionary, and down in the dumps after a loss, particularly in a manner similar to the game today, but there’s still a lot of positives surrounding the Foxes currently. I also don’t think the system was an issue today, the change to a 4-3-3 (which included the introduction of debutant Cengiz Ünder) in the second half rewarded Leicester City with similar ilk of chances to the 3-4-3 formation.

The result can be pinned down to a poor performance, compounded with missing players in crucial areas. Brendan Rodgers stated that the intensity of the counter-press, and the creativity in the final third wasn’t there today, and I agree. That’s a fair assessment of the play – it’s not a time of crisis for Leicester.