Leicester 1-1 AS Roma: The difference was shot creation

When playing versus a back three, a point of interest is how the wide CBs are utilised (positionally). With Smalling having a good success rate versus Vardy in an individual duel, the other two centre-halves could drift wide and cover any ball-carries from the Foxes wide players, whilst remaining conscious of the inside channels that both Dewsbury-Hall and Maddison wanted to exploit.

Inside of any “static possession” for Leicester, the ball would be rotated and progressed through the thirds, before being recycled across the top of the box, as puncturing the penalty area was a difficult task for the Foxes — because of the previously mentioned poor positioning. All of these points are merely to contextualise why only 15% of the created shots ended up on target (versus their average for this season of 35.8%), when they shot, it was from the edge of the box.

James Maddison attempted 6 shots himself, with two of these being on his weaker left-foot from outside the 18-yard-box. Despite all of his qualities, these efforts are regarded as a low percentage (%) chance of scoring. I did like the occasional usage of Maddison’s high volume shooting output to mirage an actual progression down the right-side, he’d receive in an area that “could” be considered within his range, before he drags a defender into blocking the angle and utilising the space they vacated to find Ricardo Pereira in space on the right — converting these areas into chances wasn’t effective.