Leicester City faced a tough game on Saturday as they played host to league leaders, and current Champions League holders, Chelsea, in the Premier League. With the injury to Youri Tielemans and with Leicester’s mixed form of late, a result against the Blues was always going to be hard, but Leicester delivered one of their worst performances so far this season and allowed Chelsea to breeze past them in a 3-0 loss.
Watching this game was very frustrating. Many fans would have taken a point going into today’s game, just as long as the performance was something to be proud of. It wasn’t. Sloppy passing, no pressing and amateur defending meant that the game was done and dusted by half time – even though the score was only 2-0.
Here, FoL will analyse three of the big talking points from the game, will look at what went wrong and will explore what this all means for the Foxes.
Leicester City’s set piece struggles
It feels like Groundhog Day when it comes to talking about set pieces. We can’t score them, and we can’t defend them. That’s the short version of it, but the problem is much bigger. Click below for the next page.
The Chelsea game wasn’t a huge highlight on the Foxes’ issues at scoring from set pieces, it was business as usual to be honest but there will be games where this will be an issue, but my word, defending from them is a huge issue.
For the last few seasons, conceding from corners has been the Achilles heel for Leicester. The exact stats aren’t clear, but last season Leicester would have been in the highest for goals conceded from corners – at least it felt like that.
When starting a game, especially one against Chelsea, it’s important that you don’t give away any preventable goals and keep a sturdy defence. On 14 minutes the Foxes conceded a corner, there were nerves, but this was a chance for Leicester to establish some aerial dominance. They didn’t.
Antonio Rudiger shook off Daniel Amartey and the desperate Timothy Castagne was helpless in trying to out-jump the German centre back. The header was strong and impressive, but preventable. Oh so preventable. It’s not the first time Rudiger has haunted City – he scored both goals at the King Power in a 2-2 draw in 2020 as well as scoring, from a header, in the 2-1 loss at Stamford Bridge last season; the game that was key in Leicester missing out on Champions League football.
Coming into this game, Chelsea had scored a league-high of 4 headed goals so far this season, within 15 minutes that number was 5. From that point onwards, Leicester faced a losing battle.
Perhaps the most frustratingg thing about this issue, is that Brendan Rodgers never truly addresses it in the media. He never acknowledges that it’s a serious issue for Leicester. For him, and the team, to kick on from this recent rut, they have to be honest about all of their flaws.
The solution to this? Get a specific set piece coach/tactician into the coaching set-up. A few years ago, Liverpool hired a coach specifically for throw-ins. It was widely joked about from rivals, but it worked. In sport, the phrase marginal gains is thrown around. Leicester City could really do with some of those.
Wrong formation at the wrong time
Coming into the game, most expected a back three. It’s what has worked best for Leicester so far. Not many were expecting a 3-4-3 though, a formation that proved costly.
The logic of a 3-4-3 is there, take the game and formation to Chelsea, set up how they set up and make them break you down. It poses a challenge, and you see a lot of sides go to a back three whenever they play Chelsea. That, unfortunately, is where the logic ends.
The 3-4-3 was a disaster. I cannot understate that enough. Keeping Barnes in the squad after his beauty against Leeds was an understandable call, but Barnes was invisible in this game, only running into defenders.
Lookman was the other winger on the right, but he didn’t do it today. He did score a goal, but it was quickly ruled for offside. Now, Ademola has been unlucky with the fact that he’s netted in a few offside goals this season, and Chalobah played the offside trap very well, but this is becoming a problem for the Leicester loanee. He needs to improve his awareness of where he is, the disallowed goals are racking up and becoming costly.
The real crime here is that the 3-4-3 meant that Kelechi Iheanacho was – for some reason – omitted from the starting XI. Iheanacho has had the most direct goal involvements of everyone in the squad, so why on earth leave him out? Without Iheanacho, Leicester just lacked the pressing needed to put pressure on the Chelsea back line. When he came on, he made a difference. He has to start.
So, if not 3-4-3, what should be the formation? For me, it has to be a 3-4-1-2. This allows both Vardy and Iheanacho to start together. It’s a combination we know works so well. This also adds a few more to the midfield whether that be Maddison or Barnes at CAM.
‘A reality check’
You may hear this a fair few times in the aftermath of today’s game. You’ll hear words such as ‘overachieved’ and ‘back to their level’. Is this good enough?
It should be said that for the last few seasons, Leicester have competed with those who have a much larger wage budget than them. Leicester also isn’t a big name that the typical superstars are drawn to. It could be argued that they overachieved in that sense.
Looking at the squad now though, this poor start to the season is miles below the standard that fans expect; simply shrugging it off as a ‘reality check’ comes across as avoiding the problems that are there in the squad.
The Foxes are currently 12th – not a disaster – but have only won once in their last four games. This is about more than results though, it’s about performances. Everyone knows that the team is much better than the flaccid displays that they are currently putting in.
A reality check for Leicester would be an 8th placed finish, but still competing and making life tough for their opponents. This is far from what we are seeing now.
So what next? There are a few disgruntled voices that are already turning on Brendan Rodgers. Sacking him from this run of results would be…extreme. Letting him leave if Manchester United came calling is something that may be considered though.
Leicester need fresh ideas and tactics. That doesn’t need to be by sacking the manager, but there needs to be a serious reflection on what is going wrong on the pitch. November and December are key months for everyone. It is crucial that the Foxes pick up their performances, or they’ll be facing a lot more pressure from angry fans.