How Leicester can beat champions-elect Manchester City

A part of the tactic that can remain is the marauding wing-backs, who are pivotal to the structure in both sides of the game. With Ricardo Pereira tweaking his hamstring prior to the international break, I’d envision Marc Albrighton starting as the left wing-back, with Castagne remaining on the opposite flank. Once the Foxes turnover possession, their running will create passing lanes for the midfield and defence, and their reception in advanced areas should provide a connection to the narrow front three.

What I’ve alluded to at the end there is the final tweak for Rodgers. Adjusting the structure from a 5-4-1 formation – with two wide-players on either side – to a narrow attacking structure in the 3-4-1-2. In the attacking phases, Barnes and Dennis Praet (the two wingers at The Etihad) drifted internally to connect with close proximity to Vardy – ensuring he wasn’t isolated. This out-to-inwards movement forced the Citizen full-backs to make decisions (track or hold), and caused all sorts of problems. The fouls for the penalties came from indecisive solutions in their own box.

For the game at the King Power Stadium, the Foxes front three will hold central positions, but could potentially invert their movements (i.e. into the channels) to have a similar impact. You’ll never drag a centre-back into the wing if they’ve got full-backs tucked in alongside them, but Ayoze Pérez and Kelechi Iheanacho are very good at manipulating pockets of the space in the half-spaces for Leicester City and the central-then-outward movement facilitates these spaces.

Instead of looking like a triangle, with Pérez at the base and Iheanacho playing on the right-side, with Vardy on the left, I predict the former two will play slightly behind Vardy – imitating the 3-4-3/5-4-1 structure. Again, this would be fluid in its rotations and would often look like the traditional 3-4-1-2 the Foxes faithful are becoming accustomed too, but would mainly develop attacks with Vardy as the “final” ball and the other two as the connecting players.

Ultimately, this will be difficult to recognise purely from the team sheet, as it would still remain in a 3-4-1-2, but it’s perhaps a nuance in the tactics that could offer similar success to the previous tie. Again, just like the reverse fixture, I predict that Leicester will operate with a deep-block and Manchester City will dominate possession. This is smart, and shouldn’t be frowned upon nor seen as an inferiority complex – the Foxes have punished Guardiola’s side before, so why not attempt to emulate that.

I’ve got all the trust in Rodgers that he’ll decide upon the correct setup for the game, I’m also oversimplifying the entire process from the Citizen’s side of things – Guardiola will refuse to lose in the same manner and probably won’t allow a similar structural implementation to succeed versus his side. But, I still think the Foxes have enough quality and tactical discipline to push Manchester City into a very close game this weekend.