The positive changes Leicester made to their atrocious set-piece defending

After regaining some absent Leicester City players, the team has discovered a middle ground to hold off their defensive stronghold against set-pieces.

What started as a malignant issue for the Foxes is steadily finding its rhythmic solution. The unlocking of the puzzle came from manager Brendan Rodgers, who has found a way to prevent errors at the back. It has not been easy for the King Power club to fight more than half of the ongoing season with critical first-team players missing due to long-term injuries.

The makeshift backline against elite Premier League attacking sides was always a gamble, to begin with. However, the team had no other options to ensure cover for their vulnerability. Then the pre-planned exploitation of Leicester City’s incompetent set-piece defending started. It was a transparent visible intent from any opposition the Foxes faced. They barraged an array of attacks through set-pieces.

It became a mournful theme that Leicester City fans had to digest with a pinch of salt. The delicate underbelly was left exposed for everyone to profit. Any makeshift solution was seldom working. After a point, the East Midlanders started to rely on their attack to escape with results.

After the availability of Wesley Fofana, Jonny Evans, and Nampalys Mendy with the rest of the squad, Rodgers could finally start to experiment. The results of which had shown themselves in their latest game against Brentford; minus Fofana who is still aiming for full fitness.

Leicester City’s revival of the old

The attempted solution reminded the fans of the Claudio Ranieri era, as Rodgers implemented his three attackers in James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Harvey Barnes to distort the enemy territory by remaining at the halfway line whenever Brentford had a corner.

"“They obviously get the numbers in the box, and then, when you watch Brentford a lot, they have a ring of players around the outside of the box, so it’s virtually 10 players 20 to 25 yards of your goal, and then they all have specific roles. If you take three (forward), they will minimum have to take three back, plus a fourth one, and that then can disrupt the organization.”“Then because they can’t work things on the edge of the box, it means you just have to defend the ball into the box. The players took on that risk and defended it very well. We look before every game, it just depends on the game. Against the likes of Brentford who are very strong at set-pieces, that worked well for us. Each game we will see where we can thwart the other team from scoring.”– Brendan Rodgers H/T Leicester Mercury."

Rodgers had started playing the cat-and-mouse game, imposing a threat of his own as the tactic provides a possible outbreak of a counter-attack if the opposition makes an error. The perplexing plan had left one of the best sides in the league in set-pieces (with a Premier League-high 50 percent of their goals coming from corners and free-kicks this season) in disarray. Leicester City, meanwhile, had conceded a league-high 47 percent of their goals from set-plays.

"“I think it’s a cat-and-mouse game. We didn’t expect them to put three up, but we always plan for teams to put three up. So we knew exactly what to do. That’s where we were brave, we went man for man, we don’t have one extra down there, so we still tried to maximize the opportunities to get in the box. I always think we created some chances, the big Pontus one, and also another one. They could have decided the game.”– Thomas Frank, Brentford manager."

It’s new and needs a few trials on the pitch to earn perfection. But it’s a start. Rodgers may stick with this aggressive tactic now. Something has stuck on the wall that is capable of plastering the reoccurring problem.