Leicester City’s 2021/22 Premier League campaign got off to the perfect start, with a 1-0 victory at home versus Wolverhampton Wanderers. But, a lot of fans noticed a slight drop off in performances over the two halves — which I attest to structural changes.
To start the fixture, the team sheet outlined Leicester in a 4-2-3-1, with the XI remaining from the game against Manchester City in the Community Shield — aside from Luke Thomas, who stepped in to replace Ryan Bertrand (due to testing positive for COVID).
I noticed in the early phases of play, James Maddison — who started the game as the Foxes #10, was dropping deep to receive possession as the left central-midfielder. Obviously formations are merely an outline of the “general” position players operate in, but this seemed like a 4-3-3 structure rather than the original 4-2-3-1.
The intention behind this shift was to isolate Harvey Barnes (left-winger) against Wolves’ Ki-Jana Hoever (right-back), as it was a slight mismatch of quality and pace. To enable this, Maddison made his aforementioned drop in position, Jamie Vardy drifted left (onto the right-centre-back to occupy him), Ayoze Pérez inverted to provide a threat centrally (again occupying defenders) and Luke Thomas’ inevitable overlapping run forced Francisco Trincão to track him instead of doubling up on Barnes.