Leicester 2-0 Rennes: Tactical tweaks maintain Foxes form

In possession, there was a really intriguing quirk to the way the Foxes built from the back. Recognising the disciplined, compact system that Génésio has created, Rodgers wanted to stretch the pitch horizontally as much as possible. To do this, Leicester always had a player fixed on the touchline; be it the winger, full-back, or even at times one of the box-to-box midfielders (Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Youri Tielemans). This dragged the narrow system into the width and thus created openings on the inside-channels for the Foxes.

The importance of this was that both offensive-minded midfielders had space to receive in good areas of the pitch. But, if they couldn’t isolate themselves, there were rotations out of positions to help receptions in these spaces. Wingers would invert, James Justin (on the right-side) played alongside Patson Daka in some phases, and all these movements forced Rennes to make decisions with regards to positioning.

I think this is why Rodgers is trusting the 4–3–3 formation, as it gives him a lot of tactical nuances and is adjustable to a wide array of instructions. The key principle is the two triangles on both sides; full-back, winger, and central-midfielder, and it was another reconfiguration of their usage that enabled a lot of good possession for the Foxes.

The goals came from different build-up styles; Marc Albrighton’s brilliant first-half strike was built through utilising Çağlar Söyüncü’s adept passing range (especially with long-balls) to find Harvey Barnes in a favourable one-on-one with the full-back. It’s easy to isolate the winger versus the full-back, but City are getting increasingly acute at doing so. His tremendous burst of acceleration enabled him to optimise the outcome, after a great first touch, and place the ball into a high percentage scoring area for the Foxes.