Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers proving his worth as world-class manager

Marcelo Bielsa’s name has been added to an ever expanding list of managers that have been outclassed by Leicester City manager, Brendan Rodgers, as the Foxes left Elland Road victorious on Monday night.

The set up versus Leeds United wasn’t too dissimilar to the successful deployments that brought maximum points from their games against Manchester City and Arsenal – with a major similarity being that all fixtures were played away from home.

All three matches saw the Foxes utilise a transitional back three, that would become a back five in the defensive phases. I think it’s important, and has been widely recognised already, to outline how well Brendan Rodgers has done to maximise the quality of this weakened Leicester side.

Converting experienced winger, Marc Albrighton, to a wing-back is the perfect example of great coaching from Rodgers. He’s optimising the 30-year-old’s usage by playing him deeper – as his creativity in the final third isn’t as good as it used to be, but he’s very good at tracking his man and understanding the dangers of runners in behind him.

He was instrumental in the Foxes 3-4-3 formation, that could resort to a 5-4-1 out of possession. To initiate a 3-4-3 formation in the attacking phase, you need the wing-backs to progress into the midfield/forward line, and Albrighton epitomises the desire and energy to achieve this.

In the previous aforementioned fixtures, Timothy Castagne would excel in this role, acquiring assists and goals for his willingness to impact in the final third. Again, this was proven by Albrighton getting the pre-assist for Tielemans first goal, which would’ve counted as an actual assist if goalkeeper, Illan Meslier, hadn’t made an exceptional save from Jamie Vardy’s header.