Leicester City has qualified for the Round of 16 in the UEFA Conference League’s inaugural season, after comfortably beating Danish side, Randers, over two legs. The majority of the Foxes’ work was done in the first-leg, ensuring a mismatched second-leg performance still confirmed qualification. What three things did I learn from the trip to Denmark?
A team that includes James Maddison is dependent on him
After fielding James Maddison as part of the wingers, and also dropping him to the bench in recent games, Brendan Rodgers reverted to having Maddison inside his midfield-three. This created a de facto, 2-1 split in midfield and adjusted Leicester’s 4-3-3 attacking formation, into more of a 4-2-3-1 — with Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi making up the defensive-midfield duo, and allowing a spot in the number 10 (attacking-midfield) role for Maddison.
This creates a centred nature to the formation, as the creative hub is placed directly behind the striker — Kelechi Iheanacho, alongside the two wingers; Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman, and as already mentioned, slightly adjacent to the defensive-midfielders with an option of verticality. But, there’s also the demand that James Maddison puts on himself to be involved in the game, even by dropping into depth to receive.
Inadvertently, the Foxes become very dependable on the attacking-midfielder and rely upon his output to create. This was clearly evident in the match versus the Danes, as a quiet first-half performance from Maddison coincided with a lacklustre half of football from Rodgers’ side. He was central to their turnover issues, often surrendering possession in defence and looking to find creative passing lanes behind the Danish defence, with little regard for controlling the game.
Yet, like he has shown on multiple occasions this season, the two moments of quality — to win the match, came from his right-foot. The first, was an inch-perfect free-kick that dropped into the top left-hand corner, while the second required a clever orientation of his body, opening up the angle to the far-side of the goal before another inch-perfect finish found the top right-hand corner. All inside of four minutes of football. That secured the win for the Foxes.
However, as impressive as those two strikes were, Maddison wasn’t performing to his best on the evening — albeit, his overall performances this season have been one of the best at the club. Too easily conceding possession, not impacting the game when the ball was at his feet, and a negative in the immobile press Leicester seemingly opted for.
Isolating Harvey Barnes against the opposition full-back
In recent weeks, Harvey Barnes has found his form and consequently, his confidence. The blistering change of pace, ability to carry internally or externally around his opponent, and a growing sense of quality in his final action — an outside shout for Gareth Southgate’s England setup for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
Brendan Rodgers has utilised his wide-man as a key component of chance creation since Barnes regained his confidence. A tactical deployment the Foxes have gone for is isolating the winger — either by building from the right-side of defence and switching the ball into Barnes wing or by playing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as an offensive-minded midfielder (as an #8), to secure the opposition’s midfield and defence, thus leaving Barnes alone.
It doesn’t matter how they’ve gone about it, ensuring he’s isolated has been key. Leicester City profited from this deployment merely two minutes into the game against Randers FC. Barnes initially started his run in the middle third, attracting the interest of the full-back, before exploding into the vacated space on the left-channel. Once behind his marker, it was an acute 1-on-1 situation, which the 24-year-old finished in quite brilliant fashion — given the conditions of the pitch.
Recognising that the left-winger is one of the best in the league, and playing to his strengths, has been very rewarding for Rodgers in recent matches. West Ham United had to sacrifice a substitution in an attempt to nullify his danger, whereas Randers just afforded him space. As the season progresses, I’m sure that this tactical nuance of isolating Barnes will be continually prevalent for the Foxes, and most likely, a rewarding one too.
Kelechi Iheanacho and Patson Daka work better as a Leicester City duo
It’s purely down to structures and formations, but Leicester City hasn’t tried Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho as a striking duo in the Premier League this season. As stated, formations such as the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 only allow a single forward, and the brief attempts with two forwards have always included Jamie Vardy. But, I think both players would suit by having a partner, and here’s why.
Firstly, Patson Daka’s impressive numbers last season came from playing in a 4-2-2-2 formation alongside Mërgim Berisha. They had a good understanding and inside the relationship, Daka was the finisher. He’d consciously play on the defensive line and look to burst onto passes through the lines, whereas Berisha was the creative player. Tall enough to be used as a slight “holdup” man, he could also drop into the attacking-midfield space and receive before looking to connect — at times with Daka.
So, you have this pre-established successful partnership that Daka thrived inside of, all you need is a player with a similar profile to drop into spaces like a traditional 10 would and also have the presence to score goals when required. Well, look no further than Kelechi Iheanacho. The Nigerian has arguably preferred his time playing as a deeper forward and relished the opportunity of having a sprinting frontman, Jamie Vardy, alongside him last season.
All the data and eye-testing I’ve done suggests they’d be a very good fit as a striking two. Of course, within this structure, you either play a back-three and go for something like the 3-4-1-2 (with James Maddison as the “one”), or an asymmetrical 4-4-2 — although with that, deciding on the midfield pivot is impossible with Youri Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and James Maddison all fighting for just two positions.
That’s probably why Brendan Rodgers hasn’t toyed with playing Iheanacho and Daka together, it’s too difficult to formulate the positions behind them. If he could figure out this conundrum, I would be excited by the idea of the aforementioned forwards playing together.