Leicester City 1-0 Wolves: Positive and negatives of structure changes

The goal came from the opposing wing, but I felt this tactical shift was to enable a suitable one-versus-one for Leicester and Harvey Barnes.

In the early phases of the second-half, Wolves began to dictate the tempo of the game. A simple adjustment in positioning of the wing-backs (pushing them higher) created a numerical advantage in the centre and they utilised this with frequent central progressions. The advanced positioning of the wing-backs forced one of two tracking movements from the Foxes — either the wingers tracked them (the ideal situation) or the Foxes’ full-backs had to step up and vacate the space behind them, and the winger (not ideal).

For the first scenario, the wide centre-backs of Wolves’ 3-4-3 structure had a lot of freedom to carry out the defence — as the wingers were occupied by the wing-backs, and Vardy was pressing by himself. They’d carry through the first line of the press, and then one of Leicester City’s double pivot would be forced into pressurising them outside of the block.

The consequence of this domino-effect action, is that there would be space centrally for Wolves’ three forwards to drop into, receive possession and ultimately aided all of their positive sequences in the early stages of the second-half. To counter this, Brendan Rodgers opted to match Bruno Lage’s defensive three formation with a slight difference.