In my previous article, I stated that Brendan Rodgers should try the 3-5-2 formation in an attempt to overcome Leicester City’s monotonous start to the 2021/22 season.
And the Foxes boss did just that, opting to play the system in Leicester’s second group-stage game in the UEFA Europa League, against Legia Warsaw — although the choice of personnel was intriguing, and unfortunately not good enough as LCFC lost the fixture, 1-0.
Daniel Amartey came into the defence and played on the right-side of the three, Jannik Vestergaard was the centre-back, and Çağlar Söyüncü started on the left. There’s a couple of issues with this composition, most notably that Rodgers has referenced how the Turkish-international struggles to adapt to playing on the left, and has been playing recently as the right-sided CB in a back four.
There’s also the fragility of Vestergaard, whose lack of mobility forced him to drop deep in defensive phases. This was problematic, especially in the goal sequence — as his positioning allowed Legia’s forward, Mahir Emreli, space to shoot. However, Amartey’s marking of the forward wasn’t good enough and his positioning (ahead of the forward) isn’t smart.
In the midfield, Rodgers opted for a central three of; Youri Tielemans, Boubakary Soumaré, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. I quite liked this, but struggled to understand why Rodgers is adamant to play Soumaré as an advanced-midfielder, instead of utilising him as the defensive-midfielder in the three (a position he’s exclusively played for LOSC Lille), and then allowing the Belgian-international to feature as an #8 — impacting proceedings in areas of creation for the Foxes.
Overall, the midfield offered very little progression in possession. Aside from Dewsbury-Hall and Soumaré, all of Leicester’s outfield players would take restrictive touches upon receiving possession limiting the passing lanes available to them, and thus making the Foxes very predictable. The aforementioned players would open their body when receiving (not all the time) and allow a couple of lanes for passes, instead of closing all but one lane — like the rest of the team.
Providing the width in the formation was Luke Thomas and Timothy Castagne. The wing-backs were the only options playing with natural width, and this also limited how progressive they could be in possession. In the team I constructed, I had Castagne as one of the defensive three, allowing Harvey Barnes to feature as one of the width options. This is facilitated by having two full-backs (Castagne and Thomas/Ricardo Pereira) in the setup to allow freedom for Barnes to play as a winger in the “five” across the middle.
With two full-backs operating as the wing-backs, LCFC didn’t have enough attacking output — especially in one-vs-one’s, to create chances from the wings. The 25-year-old was definitely the better of the two, as his decisive one-two combinations with the right-sided midfielder, or forward, did occasionally find him with possession at the byline. However, Thomas’ problem was his limitations as a dribbler forced him to pass in possession — every time — and he rarely had players advanced ahead of him.
Up top, Rodgers got slightly creative — if not a little bit forced by off-field decisions. Missing the Nigerian-international, Kelechi Iheanacho, meant that if Rodgers wanted to rest Jamie Vardy he had to play a couple different look front two. Ayoze Pérez and Patson Daka started the fixture, which meant the side had an “out-and-out” number 9 in Daka, and a creative forward that drops into an attacking-midfield position in Pérez.
With limited chances to even receive possession, the two forwards didn’t impact proceedings. Patson Daka was excellent at pressing Legia Warsaw’s defence, but with little cohesion in the sides pressing structure — often sitting in a block as a team then pushing out individually — this wasn’t utilised to the extent it should have.
Stagnant possession, often resulting in mistakes when the Foxes tried to add intensity to their play. The structure was a slight feature of this stale football, but not the overarching problem. Brendan Rodgers needs to solve the confidence issue that spans through the entire squad as of late — they’re reluctant to take risks in possession as most turnovers are resulting in good chances for the opposition and thus impacting the confidence of the squad.
Honestly, I’m not sure what the solution is for Rodgers. His last two starting XI’s have looked good enough to gain maximum points, and I’ve definitely agreed with the choices of formations — but the mentality and attitude of the performances have been subpar.
Yes, Leicester haven’t got the luck at the moment nor are they taking their chances, but to overcome these issues you have to create in abundance: outscore the opposition, instead of trying to be efficient with little creativity. These aren’t formation issues, it is problems with personnel and tactics. Rodgers needs to find answers for these problems, but the Foxes faithful should remember how much this squad has grown under his management and allow him to rectify this.