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.
What I mean by facilitating is, the angles Praet creates as a passing lane, the selfless nature of his movement – be it wide or beyond the defensive line, all have the same motive – creating space and options for the player in possession.
Without either of these in midfield, the progressive passer was Youri Tielemans, a player perfectly capable of making these passes. However, the construction of the team (a 3-4-3 in attacking sequences, and a 5-4-1 in defensive transitions) placed Tielemans and Nampalys Mendy as a deep pivot in the centre of the Leicester City midfield.
This meant that Praet’s role (connector of play) was split between the two inverted wingers, Harvey Barnes and Ayoze Pérez. Initially, this worked superbly – prior to the West Ham goal, both received the ball in good spaces and progressed play either through a carry or a pass.
As soon as the Michail Antonio goal went in, these spaces were neutralised. Declan Rice, who I personally thought was brilliant, plugged the two half-spaces that Pérez and Barnes were trying to operate in. I’m happy to give most of the credit to the England-international, but I also think Pérez and Barnes need to understand their roles in these stages of the play.
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.