With fans returning to Wembley Stadium for the first time in over a year, it felt like normality in football was finally nearing closer. To make the day even better, Leicester City progressed into the FA Cup final – ahead of Southampton, with a narrow 1-0 victory.
But, just as the celebrations for the day were nearing a close, the announcement of the “Super League” involving supposedly “elite clubs in Europe” took centre stage. It’s quite evidently a response from these so-called “European elite” to clubs disrupting the status quo – of which Leicester City have been doing for a number of years now. The announcement completely overshadowing the historic achievement for the Foxes, but in this article I’ll tactically analyse the performance and give you some football-based content that isn’t financially driven, and perhaps a break from this disastrous news.
Brendan Rodgers fielded the strongest XI available to him, as he brought Čağlar Söyüncü back into the side – following his recovery from COVID-19, and also slotted Ayoze Pérez back in the number 10 position. Of course, a fully-fit James Maddison would probably dethrone Pérez’s starring role, but his match sharpness is still lacking after a sustained period on the bench. With these players back, it was a solid 3-4-1-2 system for Leicester City.
Ralph Hasenhüttl has had injury worries of his own. His Southampton side have been recently recovered from missing several key first-team players – Danny Ings, Kyle Walker-Peters, Oriol Romeu (who is out for the rest of the season), and were able to field a very threatening 4-4-2 system. As the Austrian is becoming renowned for, he set his side up in a “high block”, with the two strikers pressing the centre-backs in possession, and the midfield four setting up on the Foxes double pivot – Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi.
To make this system work, Southampton had to push their defensive line high as well, otherwise their would’ve been too much space between their midfield and defence – allowing Pérez a lot of freedom in his role between the lines. This deployment meant that the Foxes had a lot of space behind the Saints back line, as both centre-backs; Jannik Vestergaard and Jan Bednarek had to position themselves on the half-way line (when the ball was either in Southampton’s possession, or with the Foxes defence).
Instead of trying to force the ball through a congested area of the pitch – i.e. the Foxes defensive third, Leicester City just cut out the middle man and played direct/long. This unfortunately removed the involvement of orchestrator, Tielemans, despite the Belgian being influential in the first-half. He was able to create in the first-half due to his anticipation in the press, intercepting passes into midfield, or perfectly executing a tackle and carrying the ball after reception. He didn’t receive many passes from the defenders, which is uncommon for Rodgers’ side.
At times, this dependence on playing long looked weird, or uncharacteristic. Especially considering the tall, and aerially domineering centre-back partnership for Southampton would win most balls played in the air. Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho aren’t known for their presence in the air. Instead, the design was for the midfield – and Pérez – to collect second balls goal-side of the Saints midfield. Hasenhüttl’s side were exceptional at doing this to the Foxes themselves. Another caveat was how little Kasper Schmeichel played short from goal-kicks, favouring a long-ball into one of the channels. It was a clear tactical deployment from Rodgers.
Out of possession, Leicester City sat in a deep-block and soaked up the pressure from Southampton. A testament to the structure and understanding of positioning allowed the Foxes to finish the tie without allowing a single shot on target – which is a credit to the three centre-backs who positioned themselves faultlessly throughout. Once there was a turnover in possession, Leicester City initiated fast counter-attacks and looked to utilise the pace they had in transition versus a fairly static Southampton pivot and back line.
Eventually, this rewarded the Foxes with the only goal of the game. Again, Jamie Vardy found himself drifting into the left-channel and providing an astute cutback for in-form Kelechi Iheanacho to score – on the second time of asking. After another assist for Vardy, and another “easy” goal for the Nigerian, it’s starting to feel like Rodgers is emulating the previous relationship of Harvey Barnes and Vardy, by fielding the experienced forward as the “left-winger” and becoming the de facto creator for Iheanacho. While the Nigerian is operating in spaces that would ordinarily be occupied by Vardy. Something that I think needs further investigation, but is definitely interesting.
Overall, it was a comfortable victory for Leicester. I don’t think Rodgers will be referring to the game as one of their best, far from it, but the quality in the squad prevailed over a Southampton side really beginning to struggle domestically – perhaps they could be the next club to join the Super League. The FA Cup final against Chelsea will surely be a very potent one, as the Foxes look to disrupt Europe’s elite one last time before they hide away in their “superior” competition.