How Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers’ and Marcelo Bielsa’s styles compare

Initially, both managers share the same ideologies on football. Rodgers is more a byproduct of following Bielsa’s style, but it can still be described as sharing the same beliefs on football. Free-flowing, attacking football, that actively seeks creativity and movement in the final third, but it’s structure is predetermined in training. So, the players understand their limitations, and try to play as expansively within those limits as possible.

For the managers to accomplish this, they both utilise the same formation – another shared interest. The Foxes and Leeds United utilise a starting 4-1-4-1 formation, although the way they’re implemented is quite different. With Rodgers, his 4-1-4-1 becomes a 4-3-3 in its attacking phases, as the wide-midfielders becoming wingers, and the single pivot defensive-midfielder is accompanied by the double pivot, to create a triangle in the centre.

There’s other nuances, the full-backs attack positioning is dependant on personnel, but so far this season, Timothy Castagne has played within the midfield line during attacking phases rather than the defensive line, with his fellow full-back, James Justin, occupying the latter. A fully-fit Ricardo Pereira would play similar to Castagne, but structurally speaking, they’re playing as full-backs rather than wide-midfielders.

With Bielsa, the 4-1-4-1 is non-existent in the attacking phase. In fact, it becomes an unorthodox 3-3-1-3 – a formation that Bielsa himself has famed throughout his varying jobs at club and international level. The sole defensive-midfielder (usually Kalvin Phillips) drops into the defensive line, accompanying both centre-backs. The full-backs become a part of the midfield line (which has a single central-midfielder inside of it), making it a second bank of three.

The other central-midfielder becomes the one in the formation, tasked with connecting play between the banks of three and the forward line. Lastly, in a similar structure to the Foxes, the wide-midfielders in the formation push alongside the striker to play as wingers, making a front three. It’s a structure in the attacking phase that focuses on creating angles to play through the lines at pace – in a similar fashion to Rodgers’ 4-3-3.