Leicester City’s progression past Championship opposition, Brentford, was a formality – with both clubs rotating heavily, but reaching the Fifth Round of the FA Cup is always a positive. Let’s dissect the game looking at two vastly different halves of football.
Brendan Rodgers fielded a strong starting XI, with Leicester City playing a 4-2-3-1. Aside from Cengiz Ünder, who started as the right-midfielder of the three, I’d imaging this is the full strength attacking-midfield and forward combination whilst Jamie Vardy recovers from his injury. Ayoze Perez was tasked with leading the line – although his natural instinct to drop into the number 10 position allowed James Maddison (who had started as the “10”) to occasionally drift into a de facto striker role.
The final piece of the front four was Harvey Barnes, operating on his usual left-side. The double pivot at the base of midfield consisted of captain, Youri Tielemans, and Nampalys Mendy – as Wilfred Ndidi was given a rest after featuring frequently since his return. For the first ten minutes, Leicester City looked exceptional. There was a couple of reasons for the early success, and Brentford’s fortunate opening goal did change the complexion of the game. Please click below for the next page of analysis.
I’m unsure if Brendan Rodgers asked the Foxes to focus their play down the attacking right, or if Under acknowledged he was winning his one-versus-one, but Leicester City certainly found success pressuring the left-back. Finley Stevens, at only 17 years of age, was struggling to adapt to the direct nature of the Turkish-international and was consequently dropping deeper to neutralise the space behind him. Without pressure, Under can build up speed, but also utilise his abilities to go either inside or out – a difficult scenario to defend for a full-back.
Leicester City also had Ricardo Pereira advancing from right-back, not to create an overload, but to provide an alternate route down the right-flank. Pereira’s movement is also difficult to track, as he’s comfortable providing both an under lap and an overlap when combining with his winger. However, as soon as Brentford took the lead, either coincidentally or tactically, Stevens played a lot more aggressive in his pressing/tackling and didn’t give any space to Ünder.
This removed a lot of the Foxes good play in the opening exchanges. Compounded by conceding from another corner, Leicester City seemingly lost confidence for the remainder of the half – with a lot of misplaced, poorly timed, and rushed passing in the middle third. The fluidity and combination play – between the midfield and Perez, that was instinctive had suddenly dissipated.
But, as I alluded to in the beginning of the article, the Foxes rekindle their attacking prowess in the second-half. It’s perhaps an underrated aspect of attacking football, but Leicester City’s press to regain possession became a lot more aggressive and efficient, meaning the ball was reclaimed in areas of danger – personified by Çağlar Söyüncü’s high-press (after conceding possession) to allow Maddison to receive the ball in a transition for Brentford. It was a miraculous piece of individual play – to weave between three defenders and perfectly weight a pass into the on-rushing Ünder, who calmly slotted to equalise the game just after half-time.
From that moment on, it was only the Premier League outfit who looked like progressing through the tie. A quick fire second, from the penalty spot, and the game was essentially wrapped up there and then. Aside from instigating the press in a more aggressive manner, Leicester City also recycled and rotated the ball much more efficiently than in the first 45 minutes.
Intriguingly, the Foxes played very directly and quickly in the first-half – predominantly after the Brentford goal. As a spectator, this looked like a conscious effort to force an end-to-end game, with lots of turnovers – creating higher percentage chances for the team reclaiming possession in their oppositions third (something Leicester
were doing). However, when the Foxes surrendered possession, Brentford weren’t looking to play as progressively – in fact, Thomas Frank’s side would spread the centre-back’s wide in the building stages and slowly work the ball into midfield.
What this created was a stop-start fixture for Rodgers’ side. While the Foxes looked for a lot of turnovers, the game stagnated when The Bees were in possession. In the second-half, Leicester City made recycling the possession very difficult for the opposition, whilst not surrendering the ball insignificantly. This allowed the additional pass in the final third, which was available on a few occasions, to truly unlock the Brentford defence.
There’s a lot of positives to take from the game, particularly when analysing the first ten minutes, which consisted of fluid passing, excellent positional rotations, and some smart decision-making. Again, I have to give credit to Rodgers, who understood the fixture and what was required of Leicester to overcome an initial deficit and progress into the next round of the FA Cup.