Leicester City managed to overturn their dismal recent form against Liverpool, with a mesmerising 3-1 victory at the King Power Stadium – let’s dissect the decisions, changes and tactical implementations that allowed the Foxes to come out of the game victorious.
I’ll be the first person to admit, Leicester City were underwhelming for the majority of the game – in a possession-based sense. Liverpool, as they usually do, dictated the game by camping in the Foxes half, rotating the ball through their midfield trio and into either of the wingers (or overlapping full-backs).
When Leicester City reclaimed possession, the efficiency in turning over the ball was exceptionally high for Liverpool. This is Jürgen Klopp’s ethos and style, counter-pressing, which enables The Reds to activate a good opportunity straight after winning possession back. Unfortunately, the Foxes fell victim to this trap in the first-half.
As the half dwindled towards half-time, and after Liverpool struggled to convert their dominance of the pitch/ball into clear-cut chances – mainly due to the clever composition of the Leicester City back line, the Foxes grew into the fixture. The end of the half saw the hosts create the better chances – with those falling to Jamie Vardy.
I’ve alluded to a “clever defensive composition” from Brendan Rodgers, which included playing Ricardo Pereira as a left-back, and Daniel Amartey as a right-back. Personally, I would’ve opted for a defensive three/five, with Amartey as the wide centre-back – playing Marc Albrighton as a wing-back instead of as a winger. Regardless, having Pereira retreating on the inside with his stronger footer (versus Mohammed Salah) was advantageous, whilst having an aerially dominant – and strong physical presence – such as Amartey against Sadio Mané was also positive. During the start of the game, Mané was beating Amartey one-versus-one, but with Wilfred Ndidi often dropping to create a two-versus-one and their being little exploitable space for Mané to play into, Leicester City neutralised his strengths.
The “better” chances for Leicester were by-products of the Foxes utilising the ball behind the Liverpool defensive line – which they were abundantly fragile at defending. A “makeshift” duo of Ozan Kabak (making his debut) and Jordan Henderson – again featuring in the back line, were easily exposed when turning towards their own goal. Once Leicester City forced this pass, they started to create good chances – either by directly running through on goal (i.e. Vardy and Barnes’ goals) or giving space to the advancing players in the wings – the foul for Maddison’s free-kick goal.
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.
The result supports this sentiment, the problem was there and Leicester solved it. Just prior to the seven minutes of madness, which involved the Foxes equalising, leading and then cementing their lead, Ayoze Pérez replaced Marc Albrighton. I’m not stating that the latter was at fault for Leicester City’s deficit – I’d argue his energetic tracking and awareness of danger stop Andrew Robertson from having a “free role” at left-back. But, the Spaniard definitely held a higher – occasionally more central – natural positioning and that was directly influential in Harvey Barnes’ goal. Pérez intercepted a poor pass into the midfield and quickly found Ndidi, before the Nigerian found Barnes.
The interesting caveat is that Leicester City shifted to a 4-1-2-1-2 after going behind (often referred to as a “diamond”), with – and this is a personal assumption – Barnes accompanying Vardy up front (shown by his positioning for the goal). Maddison would play as the focal point of the diamond, Pérez and Tielemans as the two “box-to-box” players or #8’s, with Ndidi playing as the sole #6. In the few occasions the Foxes have utilised the formation, its being fairly positive – the highest profile case being the 4-1 decimation of Aston Villa (A) last season. It’s also another formation to add to the list of tactical nuances Leicester City can adopt and default to depending on the situation – which is further credit to Rodgers and the coaching.
But, in all honesty the Foxes just needed some fortune in their favour and that’s what changed in those final moments. Prior to James Maddison’s equaliser, Leicester City thought they had a penalty – after Thiago Alcântara fouled Barnes as he shifted the ball between both feet and into the penalty area. But, after a VAR viewing the foul was correctly judged to be just outside the box – it seemed that in this moment that slice of fortune had just vanished. Until less than a minute later, when Maddison’s free-kick somehow missed every player in the area and slotted into the far corner – this was also overturned by the on-field official for offside against Daniel Amartey – before, again, VAR correctly overturned the decision.
It was in this moment, when the fortune had shifted into the Foxes favour and the recent miseries of Liverpool’s form were being highlighted again, that Leicester City started to strut their stuff and deservedly ran away with the fixture. In a game of ninety minutes, sometimes you need to dig deep for the majority and show your qualities in those moments of importance – and inside the final fifteen minutes, that’s when the Foxes pounced.
I would’ve suggested that Leicester City and Brendan Rodgers had outdone themselves this season with their “giant killing” name tag, but they’ve added Liverpool to their repertoire. You couldn’t ask for a better result ahead of a gruelling midweek game in the UEFA Europa League versus Sparta Prague. Let’s hope the Foxes can replicate this result with a slightly improved performance and put themselves one step closer to the Round of 16.