Plan B: Rodgers to alter Leicester style to fit Slimani

It appears that Brendan Rodgers finally has a Plan B, as he’s willing to alter his Leicester City system in-game to suit deputy striker Islam Slimani.

Well, well, well, all you naysayers who suggested our Leicester City manager has no Plan B can now choke on those words, as Brendan Rodgers has pulled an ace out of his sleeve. Just ignore the fact that it’s a hail Mary or a blind leap of faith.

Yep, that’s right, the Northern Irishman is not just going to reintroduce a passé striker who’s been an outcast at the club for just shy of three years – he’s going to switch the whole style up.

What a turnaround. Or cop out. Or is it a bandaid over the fact there was no funding to buy another quality attacker during the recent off-season?

I don’t intend to criticise the Algeria man too much, it’s not his fault he looked as out of place as I would have playing upfront against Aston Villa on Sunday night. He is a talented player; and the understudy roster can’t be full with exceptional players or they wouldn’t be back-up personnel.

It’s just that it feels counterproductive for Rodgers – an apparently staunch boss, with a philosophy he guards with ‘honour’ and pride – to regress back to hoofing the ball up field in hopeful, retro football-style. In addition to begin chucking crosses into a fairly immobile attacker when the game has passed the Foxes by with regard to creativity at 75 minutes. But, hey, he’s the gaffer.

This is what Rodgers said about integrating the Algerian into the team:

"“He had a couple of good contacts in the box.“I think with Slim, it’s just a case of the players getting used to playing with that type of striker.“We’re always looking to get in behind defenders or pull it back, because we don’t usually have that same presence, even though Jamie is really good in the air.“But when you have Slim on the field, you can wrap it in there that bit earlier for him. It’s something that’s a very important part of our game, from half-spaces out wide, we tend to get crosses in, but we probably couldn’t find the quality that makes the difference.”"

Just to be clear, I would love nothing more than ‘Slim’ to pull his weight in Europe, bang in a hat-trick away in Ukraine and subsequently tweet Foxes of Leicester saying: “whuuut?!”. but the consistent goalscoring possibly won’t happen. Besides, Kelechi Iheanacho produced some excellent, deep linkup play in the first-half of the dismal defeat to Villa. Therefore the Nigerian is certainly my selection to deputise for Vardy. And, Rodgers doesn’t have to then change his system.