Leicester 2-1 Palace: Tactically adaptable Foxes push towards UCL

Another tactical adjustment from Rodgers was to shift Youri Tielemans away from the central congestion – when the Foxes were in possession. By doing this, Tielemans was able to operate on the right-side – forcing Castagne to play higher and closer to the forwards – the equalising goal was a direct result of this positional play.

The longer the half progressed, the more Leicester were rewarded for playing two wing-backs in “high and wide” positions. Again, to credit Rodgers, the substitution of Thomas for Marc Albrighton gave the Foxes two wing-backs extremely comfortable in playing this fashion – whilst maintaining good quality in defensive transitions.

The second goal was a moment of magic from Iheanacho, but was created because of the positioning of the wing-backs – as Patrick Van Aanholt (Palace’s left-back) was forced to cover Albrighton, who had positioned himself on the right touchline. This created enough space for the Nigerian to run into, and was found with a pinpoint pass from Evans – whose passing in recent weeks has been phenomenal.

Iheanacho finish was remarkable, and followed the finishing style of Mason Greenwood (Manchester United youngster) last season. After creating space via a little body feint, Iheanacho shot “prematurely” to blindside the goalkeeper, with a defender between himself and the goal. It takes extreme confidence to manufacture and score a chance of this nature, and Greenwood was doing this with a ridiculous level of success last season (he’s now slowed down because of this unrealistic overperformance on his xG [expected goals] – scoring 10 from 3.6 xG).

The overall performance wasn’t “great” from the Foxes, although the tactical adaptability and solutions from Rodgers do highlight an efficiency of reading the oppositions strategy. This bodes well for the remainder of the season, as Leicester slowly venture towards Europe’s elite competition next season.