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.
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.
Introducing both of Boubakary Soumaré and Jannick Vestergaard — making Premier League debuts for the club — allowed Rodgers to shift into a 3-5-2 formation (slightly different to the 3-4-3 of Wolves). Replacing James Maddison and Ayozé Pérez, the Foxes shifted Harvey Barnes into the left-striker position, alongside Vardy, while the substitutes took up their ordinary positions — centre-back and central-midfield respectively.
This central-midfield three; Soumaré, Youri Tielemans, and Wilfred Ndidi, were now capable of limiting central progressions from Wolves — especially because of the numerical superiority, as the 3-4-3 only has a midfield double pivot, but it did come with a cost to the Foxes’ press. Without wingers, Leicester City couldn’t pressure the wide centre-backs (when they’re in possession). Aside from having extra freedom on-the-ball, they also always had an “out” ball passing lane if the Foxes pressed, and this made Rodgers’ team’s life very difficult.
The shift of structure also seemed uncomfortable for Leicester in possession; a lot of misplaced passes, and poor interactions on-the-ball, negated the actual positives of the shape (limiting central progressions) as they sacrificed possession in areas of high percentage turnovers. This is all contextual, as the Foxes were able to hold out due to having an additional defender — making a block or last ditch tackle, but perhaps the shift in structure invited these chances rather than negating them.
Overall, LCFC won the game and that’s the most important thing early in a season. I thought the performance first-half was electric, and highlighted just how fluid the team plays inside a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 hybrid, connecting effortlessly all across the pitch. I anticipate that’s the system moving forward, and the aforementioned changes were forced by Wolves’ system finding minor flaws in the Foxes shape/team.