This should be Brendan Rodgers’ main Leicester formation

Within the formation, you provide support for frontman, Jamie Vardy, something previous manages have struggled to find – most notably, Claude Puel. Playing with three central midfielders has been almost a necessity over the last few years, as establishing dominance in the centre of the pitch with purely a double pivot is extremely difficult.

The triangle that is formed by having a defensive midfielder sat behind the double pivot, allows for balance in the composition and numerical neutrality or superiority. This also helps with creativity from central areas, allowing key players such as James Maddison and Youri Tielemans to flourish.  Finally, your defensive four has solidity (especially with the defensive midfielder), yet still poses opportunities for the full-backs to maraud forward. Overall, I believe Rodgers has found a good balance with the 4-1-4-1.

I’m also of the belief that Leicester City have proven their worth in multiple formations, and thus should use this in their favour. The deployment of the 5-4-1 against Manchester City raised many eyebrows – including my own – but retrospectively, it was a brilliant way of neutralising the interior half-spaces Pep Guardiola’s teams have become recognised for exploiting.

However, I don’t think Rodgers should utilise a formation such as this, or a similar composition such as the 3-4-3, in games where the Foxes want to control the ball. I’ll be the first one to say that Leicester City’s loss to West Ham was individual errors rather than a system issue – and I stand by this ethos, but had the Foxes played in a 4-1-4-1/4-3-3, the progression of the ball through the midfield lines would’ve been a lot simpler.