Stoke 0-4 Leicester: Width, rotations, and efficient creativity for the Foxes

An excellent victory for Leicester City sees Brendan Rodgers side progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup in place of Stoke City. Now let’s look at the positives from the 4-0 stomping versus the Potters.

Firstly, Leicester City highlighted the weaknesses of their opponents very early on – similar to the game against Brighton & Hove Albion earlier this season, and exposed them. Stoke City fielded a 3-5-2 formation, which provided only a single wing-back option on the flank either side, whereas the Foxes’ 4-2-3-1 had both a full-back and a winger – creating an overload in the wings for Leicester.

Consequently, Brendan Rodgers instructed the Foxes to play with more intent in the wings. This enabled James Justin’s goal, as Harvey Barnes (the left-winger) had vacated space for the young full-back to maraud into. The rest of the play for the goal was exceptional by Justin, being versatile – very two-footed – allowed him to fake external movements before progressing inside and striking towards goal.

The opening exchanges of the game, even before Justin’s opener, seemed to be turnover-orientated – mainly instigated by Leicester City, which I’d argue isn’t the correct approach for a game versus a team lacking quality like Stoke City. I’ve been the largest advocate of playing in this style and it was beneficial to the result, but it perhaps wasn’t the correct game to implement it.