FA Cup final: How Leicester trapped Chelsea to win the trophy

Out of possession, Leicester would shift into their favoured 4-4-2 pressing shape, although there was an intriguing twist to its deployment versus Chelsea. Because of the position rotations to allow the change of shapes, most notably Pérez moving from occupying a central location (in the hole), to a left-midfield position. What this does, is it creates an asymmetrical 4-4-2 for the Foxes – as on the right-side it’s the wing-back advancing into a midfield position to make the “4”, but they’re always positioned slightly behind the midfield block.

To achieve maximum results inside the asymmetrical structure, Leicester City forced Chelsea into building through their defensive right – mainly Reece James/Cesar Azpilicueta, as Pérez’s high position in conjunction with Vardy’s desire to drift into the channel to press the opposition – and the proactive nature of Thomas as the full-back, gave the Foxes numerical superiority down that side. To replicate this on the right, Timothy Castagne (RCB) needed to play as the full-back, with Marc Albrighton as the wing-back and Kelechi Iheanacho as the pressing forward – this doesn’t come as naturally to these three players.

Throughout the fixture, Leicester City were good at manipulating the progression of the ball (from the oppositions POV) to allow this “trap” to thrive. Although, Tuchel’s 3-4-3 system didn’t help Chelsea build in different sequences, as the front three played very compactly and high (evidence being the reception of the balls in advanced areas one-vs-one with the Foxes CB’s), and the double pivot struggled to find spaces centrally versus Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi.