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

The idea with both formation shifts is to move and adjust the oppositions defensive shape. With Bielsa, it’s about creating diagonal passing angles (and lots of them) to progress the ball through the lines as quickly as possible – it’s why Leeds United look like they’re counter-attacking all the time, they’re incredibly fit and play a turnover-heavy style of football.

With Rodgers, it’s slightly different. The diagonal passing angles are definitely a staple in the transitioning formation, the wingers occupy the half-spaces between the oppositions centre-backs and full-backs, and are thus able to receive the ball relatively unmarked. The midfield compositions allows one of the central-midfielders to play slightly more advanced – ordinarily, James Maddison. However, Leicester City aren’t a turnover-heavy team, instead they look to keep hold of the ball and rotate possession if the opportunity doesn’t arise, instead of trying something hopeful and losing possession.

In the modern era, turnover-heavy teams have been extremely successful. Look at Liverpool under Juergen Klopp, how often does Trent Alexander-Arnold deliver a “hopeful” ball into the box that doesn’t reach any of the forwards? Often, but where does the loose ball result? It’s almost exclusively collected by the Liverpool midfielders and they’re now in a position of transition, which benefits them versus their opposition. With The Peacocks, it’s the same idea.

For what it’s worth, I think the Foxes might struggle with the intensity of Leeds United’s attack. Leicester City are often weak when adjusting to their defensive structure, as are most teams in fairness, so a quick transition into attack causes problems.

So far this season, Bielsa has lost two games. An opening day defeat to Liverpool, and a narrow 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Interestingly, Rodgers has been utilising a 3-4-3 formation in the last few fixtures and Nuno Espírito Santo – Wolves’ boss, has implemented this formation for a few years at Molineux. With Wolves getting a win against Leeds United, could the Foxes benefit from using the 3-4-3 formation?

Arguably not, although Wolves were victorious in their game against Leeds, it wasn’t a fair reflection of the game – which ultimately, Bielsa’s side deserved to win. Looking at the expected goals (xG) from the game, shows you that Leeds should’ve won as by the aforementioned metric it was 1.6 xG to Wolves’ 0.5.

For Leicester to get a result today, Rodgers needs to get the initial game plan correct. On multiple occasions this season, he’s proven that he can get that part of the game spot on – Manchester City and Arsenal being the most compelling cases. However, his mid-game adjustments are still leaving a bit to be desired, his tactical switches and substitutions often feel negative and wrong. His opponent, Bielsa, is the mastermind of mid-game management, so ensuring the initial game plan works is of upmost importance.