If the Foxes want to field the partnership that prevailed so successfully at the tail end of last season, they have a couple of options. Either switch to a back three and play a 3-5-2 formation, or transition to a very traditional 4-4-2. There’s upsides and downsides to both of these, and I’ll provide those now.
The back three poses a lot of problems for Leicester, particularly with the injuries limiting who can actually play as a centre-back. The best options are Çağlar Söyüncü, Daniel Amartey, and Jannik Vestergaard — the latter being my third pick out of the three. However, with James Justin returning soon, and Jonny Evans slowly becoming an option again, there’s a few better alternatives to play inside the three.
Once you’ve solved the back line conundrum, the midfield has three central positions available — enabling any composition Rodgers likes. There’s also room for both forwards, however, in the wide position you have to balance the choice of wingers and wing-backs. With excellent options for full-backs, it seems fairly limiting to only utilising wingers as the wide-players. You could play Timothy Castagne as one of the centre-backs — and I think his physicality could definitely adjust to the role — but he struggled when fielded there last season.
There’s of course the 4-4-2, but it’s simplistic positional structure does limit the Foxes’ hand in a couple of areas. Only the pivot is available in midfield, meaning that only Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans can start — instead of having an extra ball-player (or an attacking-midfielder) to accompany them. I also don’t like the passing lanes that the positions naturally form, there’s not a lot of diagonal options in possession and that’s the easiest form of progression.