Leicester’s best formation and system under Rodgers

A resurgence in form since the international break, sees Leicester City win three games in a row — beating Manchester United, Spartak Moscow, and Brentford to overcome a slow start to the 2021/22 campaign.

To fix the “poor” form at the start of the season, Brendan Rodgers adjusted from his wing-heavy systems, that allowed both Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman to flourish, to a two-striker (and consequently three centre-back) system enabling both forwards — Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho to impact proceedings.

Some questions have started surfacing regarding the minutes for both the previously mentioned wingers, and how Rodgers will tweak the current formation (a 3-4-1-2) to allow both the exciting attacking options a chance to feature in the first team. But, something that isn’t being addressed, is how the structure will be adjusted to facilitate both James Justin and Wesley Fofana returns from injury?

Investigating the performances of Rodgers’ side in the multitude of formations since Justin’s injury has highlighted a few key principles the manager should follow with his return. The Foxes’ statistically best formation is the 3-4-1-2, with James Maddison operating as the number 10 behind a strike partnership of Vardy and Iheanacho. A sample size of seven games since Justin’s ACL injury in February 2021 has seen LCFC claim an average of 2.29 points per game (five wins, one draw, one loss) in this system.