Leicester City embarked on their first UEFA Europa League campaign, after the rebranding from its original routes of the UEFA Cup, beating Ukrainian opposition, FC Zorya Luhansk, 3-0 in the initial group stage fixture.
Undeniably, Leicester City’s injury list is becoming increasingly stacked with starting personnel, therefore Brendan Rodgers had to adjust the game plan and tactics to ensure Leicester City began this European adventure in the perfect fashion. This saw an unorthodox formation for the Foxes, an asymmetrical 4-3-3 with James Maddison returning to the starting line-up for the first time this season.
The England-international accompanied Kelechi Iheanacho and fellow England-international, Harvey Barnes, to make an intriguing front three. On paper, this seemed like a standard combination inside the 4-3-3, Barnes and Maddison would adopt the winger roles and Iheanacho would operate centrally. Vertically, this was correct, but horizontally this couldn’t be further from the truth.
I refer to this as “asymmetrical” because of the horizontal formation of the front line. Naturally, Iheanacho drops into an advanced midfield role, often coined the “number 10” role – he’s stated on a few occasions this is his desired position for the Foxes, but with Maddison flourishing in this area, the Nigerian has featured more prevalently as a back-up striker to Jamie Vardy.
With Maddison operating on the right, Iheanacho was able to play the “number 10” role without stepping on the toes of the 23-year-old. While Iheanacho made these dropping movements, Maddison drifted into the right half-space as the right-winger. This was for a couple of reasons; it’s an unnatural position (RW) for him to play, so moving into a more familiar central position made him feel comfortable.
He was rotating the right-wing position with right central-midfielder, Dennis Praet, so in transition either player would operate in either position – meaning that naturally the half-space was occupied more frequently than the wing. The final reason is to allow Timothy Castagne more freedom to maraud the right-flank, as his attacking contributions have been excellent for Leicester City so far this season.
The final component of the front three was Barnes, who played a devastating role on the shoulder of the defensive line. Barnes was tasked with being the most advanced player for the Foxes (in most scenarios), allowing Iheanacho/Maddison to drop into deeper areas to collect possession. I think this adjustment was brilliant from Rodgers, as without Vardy, Leicester City lose a key feature of their attacking transition – Vardy’s pace. Having Barnes operate on the defensive line, with similar qualities with regards to pace, allowed the Foxes to maintain a similar style of progression without their talismanic goal-scorer.
Another facet of this asymmetrical formation is the neutralising of the narrow 4-1-2-1-
2 system that FZ Zorya Luhansk used. By playing Maddison and Praet, in a rotational role between the right-wing and right central-midfield position, Rodgers was able to field four central-midfielders in his starting XI. Youri Tielemans and Nampalys Mendy partnered the aforementioned duo.
When Leicester City were out of possession, they could match the Muzhyky (“The Men”) numerically in the middle. This did allow some extra space out wide for Zorya in the earlier stages of the half, which also resulted in a very good scoring opportunity for Vladyslav Kabaev, thankfully Kasper Schmeichel was alert and produced a great save – it was a brilliant extension of his body to make the goal as small as possible.
Aside from this chance, the Foxes limited Zorya to speculative efforts from the edge of the box. I think the early chance for Kabaev served as a good warning – that overloads could form on the wings, and that the wide central-midfielders needed to rotate between covering the passing lanes in the centre and occupying the player in possession on the wing.
Once Leicester City took the lead, the result was a formality. Prior to the five substitutions, the Foxes played some great football, with a lot of fluidity through the lines. I think the formation was key to this, with a lot of players drifting between the lines, there was always options to play through Zorya’s press. I’m unsure if this system works agaisnt Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, as their 3-4-3 provides them with numerical superiority in the wings, but it’s an interesting development whilst Vardy remains in the stands.
Overall, it was a very good win for Rodgers’ men. I think a section of the Foxes faithful have downplayed the qualities of the Ukrainian outfit, as in spells they caused problems for Leicester. To come away from their first UEFA Europa League game with three goals, a clean sheet, and as far as I’m aware, no new injuries, is very promising. Next up in the completion, an away trip to AEK Athens.