Tottenham 0-2 Leicester: A blueprint for beating the deep-block

This is where the blueprint comes in. Mourinho’s managerial style is often best described as “anti-football”, in that he’s reluctant to follow the status quo regarding possession and its importance. As a statement, he’s often deployed his teams to negate ball control and play like the “inferior” team. As I’ve already mentioned, he’s perfected this ideology with Spurs this season.

The deep-block style, a pragmatic term for Mourinho’s setup, has caused a multitude of problems for Leicester City this season, because teams will hold a compact shape out of possession and negate all passing lanes through them – making progressive football difficult to instigate. But, what if you give that team a lot more of the ball than they want? The Foxes’ risk-taking and high percentage of progressive passes – almost forcing the issue – made the game very turnover heavy, end-to-end if you will, and that benefited Leicester way more than it did Mourinho’s Spurs.

Essentially, Rodgers asked the Foxes to play through the lines quick, regardless of whether it netted a progressive play or a turnover in possession. Leicester City also utilised aerial balls into the channels for any of; Castagne, Barnes, or Albrighton to win versus their marker. What this did, was it either resulted in a successful aerial dual (allowing Leicester to receive possession inside the final third) or it gave Tottenham the ball back. However, this wasn’t negative – it was planned. Once Spurs regained possession they’d look to build an attack and leave themselves susceptible in the transitions.

I’d argue that Tottenham have some of the best counter-attacking threats in world football, and if this “blueprint” – giving them the ball and letting them cause their own downfalls, worked so effectively, surely utilising this against the “lower tier” sides in the Premier League, such as the clubs that have taken points at the King Power Stadium already, would be even more beneficial. Take the game against Brighton & Hove Albion as an example, Leicester didn’t play a high turnover style of game, but the early goal in their favour forced the Seagulls into playing a more progressive style of football – thus making the game end-to-end, and unsurprisingly the Foxes were easily victorious.

This style of football is being implemented by a specific club in the Premier League already, and it’s giving them a great deal of success. Liverpool are the biggest advocates of forcing turnovers in possession and consequently, counter-pressing (or gegenpressing) to reclaim the ball whilst their opposition is in transition. To enable this, they play a lot of crosses into the box from midway inside the attacking-half and aim to claim second balls. I’m aware that this isn’t an exact match for what Leicester City implemented versus Spurs, but it’s a clear philosophical similarity – and it’s working tremendously well for Jürgen Klopp’s side.

Optimistically, I think we’ve witnessed a clear tactical setup that works versus teams that sit deep and defend. The real test is to execute this when the next opportunity arises, which won’t be the Foxes next game – at home to Manchester United. Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side look to instigate control of the game rather than sacrificing the ball. This will consequently offer a different challenge, especially given their emphatic result against Leeds United at the weekend.

I think we can all agree that the Foxes need to translate their exceptional performances on the road into points at the King Power Stadium, and why not begin this transition against Manchester United. I will end this article the exact same way I did the last – if any manager can devise and execute a pre-match game plan then it’s Brendan Rodgers and Leicester.