As the @_FIBT blog enters its second season, the roundtable discussions may be added to by other interesting pieces (if we can remember and find the time!). Here, we have a tactical piece written by @FINickLFC on some interesting developments for Leicester.
After splashing out on Ayoze Perez, bringing in Youri Tielemans on a permanent deal and already benefiting from one of the brightest young prospects in James Maddison, Brendan Rodgers appears to have a made a slight tactical switch to his Leicester side.
It might not matter too much to those who do the team-sheets and line the 11s up as they see fit, but when you're talking about the difference between a few extra PB points (and not quite enough in this case for Ricardo Pereira holders) it can mean a big difference.
Last season, when Rodgers took control, he mostly operated with a 4-3-3 with out and out wingers. Demari Gray, Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton shared the wide duties. With Wilfried Ndidi, Tielemans and Hamza Choudhury occupying the central roles, while Maddison filled either a wide berth or played off Jamie Vardy.
This year however, at least in the opening game of their season against Wolves, Rodgers appeared to operate more of a 4-2-2-2 while in possession. Ndidi and Choudhury sat in front of the back four, Tielemans and Maddison operated 'between the lines' and Perez and Vardy played as the main two strikers. This is despite what you'll see on SofaScore and WhoScored.
With such a narrow system, that allowed Leicester's full backs to occupy the space left by Perez pushing forward and central and Maddison tucking in 'off the left'. It also occupied Wolves defenders which led to plenty of space for Ricardo Pereira and Ben Chilwell to move in to and they used it effectively.
That tweak to the system may have been a way of Rodgers counteracting a strong Wolves side. Jonny Castro and Matt Doherty has a decision to make; do they stick with by Maddison and Perez and tuck in to help defend leaving space in the wide areas or do they stay wide and try to deal with Pereira and Chilwell and potentially leave someone free in a more central position? Leicester may also have gone down this route to try and curb the wing backs attacking threat a little and was specific for this game, or it may be something that we see more through the season.
From the screen grab below you can see how narrow Leicester were, and all 5 of the Wolves midfielders in close proximity to each other. In the average position graphic, you can see how the screen grab better reflects the attacking shape than the 4-1-4-1 line up.
That tight net of Wolves' defensive block - which they will have been quite happy with - allowed the space in the wide areas for Chilwell (top of screen) and Pereira (bottom of screen)
There was a slight favouring of the right hand side in Leicesters play, through the attacking full back Pereira. He made 114 touches to Chilwell's 107, however, Pereira attempted 6 dribbles and completed 4, with Chilwell only making one attempted dribble and having no success. Something especially relevant under the new matrix.
Leicester dominated possession, enjoying 70% of the ball. When they had the ball they managed to exploit the wide areas with the ball finding its way out to Pereira quite often, he was able to rack up a decent, if not groundbreaking score of 173 which included the clean sheet, but there was only one unsuccessful cross, no assists, goals or win points. A respectable 3rd place finish for Pereira behind two PSG players, one of which played CDM for most of the game.
Part of Pereira's score was from his tackling, he attempted 5 tackles and won 4 of those (the most on the pitch), amassing 31 points from that alone. While there is no stats readily available to me on this, my hunch was that he was attempting his tackles higher up the field to try and win the ball back ASAP, which again shows the underlying attacking intent from the Leicester full back.
What remains to be seen is whether Leicester continue down this road with a narrow set up allowing space for the full backs to push in to, or whether that was a specific plan for Wolves. It will also be worth keeping an eye on Leicester's possession stats, Rodgers placed a huge emphasis on retaining possession in his Liverpool side and this looks like it will continue with the Foxes. More of the ball and more space for the full backs should see their PB scores flourish.
Do you fancy Pereira or Chilwell this season? Was this just a one-off or will there be more of the same to come from Brendan Rodgers' side? Get involved and let us know @_FIBT on Twitter.