Leicester 3-1 Liverpool: A tactical breakdown of Foxes comeback

The second-half began in a similar vein to the first, Liverpool dictating the tempo – trapping the Foxes in their defensive third by counter-pressing (gegenpressing). A slight adjustment from Rodgers, which was successful, was to drop one of the defensive-midfielders deeper during the initial building stages, forcing Liverpool to commit to a 4-2-4 shape if they wanted to press in the fashion they like too. This was a similar idea to the one I envisioned prior to kick-off, which would’ve been created by fielding a transitional back five – with an additional centre-back to utilise in possession, that would’ve forced a riskier commitment to the press from Liverpool.

In fairness to Rodgers, this was a creative solution that didn’t shift the structure of the side, it was more a positional adjustment from Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi. I don’t often highlight individual performances through these pieces – although I do in my Twitter threads – but, Ndidi deserves a serious mention. The Nigerian was absolutely phenomenal and one of the key reasons the Foxes were able to overcome the deficit – his ball recoveries (a whopping 19 – a league high for the season), five tackles, five clearances, three interceptions, and six aerials won where fundamental in disrupting the flow of Liverpool’s attacks.

Leicester went behind to an exceptional goal from Mohammed Salah. There was some good fortune for how it fell back to Trent Alexander-Arnold – after a poor initial effort – but The Reds deservedly took the lead from the moment onwards. Roberto Firmino’s involvement was of particular interest to me, not just for the “showboating” side of his pivoting roulette turn, but his spatial awareness to understand that Salah would be making a blindside run in the space he’d vacated, and finding that with instinctual skill. Sometimes as a fan, especially of a team that’s just conceded, you have to admire the work of your opponents and that was one of those moments.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for the Foxes, and this has become increasingly vital with the plethora of injuries they’ve accumulated in recent weeks, is the mental fortitude/resilience, to not combust once behind – something Leicester City have done versus Liverpool in recent times. In fact, during his press conference, Brendan Rodgers openly mentioned the Foxes had a plan in place to react to a losing scenario – some would call this a negative mindset, but it’s more about being realistic and problem solving.