Leicester City 1-0 Leeds United: 3 things learned from back-to-back wins

The wide, expansive, and roaming Leicester City central-midfielders

Credit where it’s due, Brendan Rodgers is great at making minor tweaks to adjust profiles and roles and is doing so accordingly with the central-midfielders. This time it’s the emergence of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and how the Northern Irishman is asking the roaming midfielders to operate to ensure he gets the best out of the 23-year-old.

It’s quite apparent Youri Tielemans hasn’t played to the same standard in recent weeks, and that’s in part due to this tweak in midfield. Let me explain. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has a fairly broad skill set, but a few components that are individualistic versus other players in his positions — the ability to drift and receive in the wing, good bursts of acceleration doubled with decently good pace across long distances, and good body manipulation for carries and passes.

It’s within this stylistic profile that Rodgers has adjusted the roles of his midfielders to aid progression. Against Leeds United, Dewsbury-Hall was exclusively receiving possession from Luke Thomas in the left-midfield location, drifting from the centre to find an unused pocket, before looking to connect with Harvey Barnes, who can utilise KDH’s positioning and play slightly more advanced. Because of the horizontal nature of the positioning, the tactic is asking the opposition if they want to track the runner (thus removing players from the centre), or to allow them space — it was predominantly the latter, albeit the few occasions they tracked him his quality’s in possession prevailed.