Why Leicester have every chance of winning the Premier League again
James Maddison is showing his class again, no more reliance on Jamie Vardy, players are buying into Brendan Rodgers’ philosophy and a top class set-up behind the scenes… why Leicester have every chance of winning the title again
- Leicester City moved back to the top of the Premier League after Chelsea win
- The Foxes have just one point less at midway point than 2016 title winners
- Manager Brendan Rodgers is at great pains to play down their title chances
- But he has moulded a talented side that genuinely buy into his philosophy
- Leicester’s recruitment is second to none as shown by James and Fofana
- They have also just moved into a state-of-the-art £80million training ground
Surely nobody out there will deny Leicester City are genuine Premier League title contenders?
Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over Chelsea was just the latest demonstration of their class as they overwhelmed their opponents with slick and effective football.
It isn’t only that Brendan Rodgers’ side moved top of the table – after all, that leadership had changed hands 14 times already this season – but the fact they are in a pretty much identical position now to this point in their incredible 2015-16 title campaign.
Leicester City put in another superb performance against Chelsea to move top of the table
Manager Brendan Rodgers had every reason to be pleased with a dominant performance
The Premier League leadership keeps changing but Leicester are there for the time being
The current side have just one point less than Claudio Ranieri’s team had at the mid-way point back then. Plus they’re top – for the time being at least – whereas the 2016 vintage were second to Arsenal at this stage.
That was a season in which Leicester’s brilliance combined with the inconsistency of the top six teams to deliver a 5,000-1 title triumph.
If anything, the current season is even more unpredictable with Covid and a congested fixture schedule introducing plenty of chaos into the Premier League.
So there’s every chance Leicester can win the league title again – and here are just some of the reasons.
Rodgers’ clear philosophy
Rodgers is fast approaching the second anniversary of his Leicester appointment. Many questioned why he had chosen to leave the guaranteed silverware and Champions League football at Celtic for what was then a mid-table Premier League club.
Perhaps Rodgers felt he had something to prove in the Premier League after his Liverpool side fell at the final hurdle in the 2013-14 title race.
Leicester had finished 12th, 9th and 9th again in the seasons immediately after their 2016 title win, a significant regression as better resourced clubs picked off star players like N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez.
Claudio Ranieri (left) guided Leicester to a miraculous title win in 2016 and they could well be strong enough to repeat the feat this season
The forward strides made by the team since Rodgers arrived are impressive. The way he wants Leicester to play isn’t necessarily complicated and it’s clear all his players buy into his philosophy.
They look a well-oiled machine, with everyone fully understanding their roles and giving everything for the cause. ‘You don’t play for Brendan Rodgers if you don’t do the dirty work,’ as James Maddison said after the win on Tuesday.
The way they were able to overcome Chelsea, the one Premier League opponent Rodgers hadn’t previously beaten, showed once again how well the individual parts fit together.
Rodgers high-fives Jamie Vardy after taking the striker off late in the 2-0 win over Chelsea
Every section of their team looked in total control and there somehow was never any doubt they’d beat Chelsea. Really, they should have won by more.
Even those who’ve been in the team a long time, like Jamie Vardy, are clearly still learning under Rodgers’ coaching methods and there’s a nice cohesion and understanding about the side that has come from two years absorbing what the manager has to say.
Rodgers is never going to be a ‘celebrity’ manager like a Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola but he certainly knows how to get a tune out of his players.
No throwing it away
Once Chelsea had fallen behind to Wilfred Ndidi’s cracker of a goal in the sixth minute, they were never likely to come back.
That’s because Leicester have won 30 of 35 Premier League games under Rodgers when they’ve scored the first goal.
It isn’t exactly ‘park the bus’ after getting that breakthrough either with Leicester more often than not continuing to push for further goals.
There was never likely to be a Chelsea comeback after Wilfred Ndidi put Leicester in front
The fact they so rarely throw away leads speaks of a strong mentality that Rodgers has slowly instilled in the past couple of years.
The best teams have an ‘over my dead body’ mindset that a lead will be defended at all costs and Leicester clearly have that.
Vardy’s excellence… but they’re not reliant on him
Jamie Vardy scored 24 goals to help Leicester to that 2016 title success and the 34-year-old has already netted 11 times in this Premier League campaign.
So he remains of fundamental importance. But, when he does have a quieter night as against Chelsea, Leicester still have plenty of other ways of finding the net.
Harvey Barnes and James Maddison both have six league goals, for example, while Youri Tielemans has chipped in with four. It isn’t down to one man any more.
Jamie Vardy celebrates his goal against Tottenham last month, one of 11 league goals so far
Leicester’s hallmark has long been those razor-sharp counter-attacks that suit a last shoulder of the defender forward like Vardy so perfectly.
But under Rodgers, they like to see a bit more of the ball and build pressure rather than relying on the directness of the counter-attack all the time.
They have also clearly worked hard on set-piece routines, with a short corner routine catching Chelsea cold for Ndidi’s opener on Tuesday.
Vardy’s ability to move so quickly beyond defences at his age remains remarkable, though, and you’d have thought defences might have figured him out by now.
Vardy slide tackles the corner flag after scoring Leicester’s late winner at Sheffield United
Maddison masterclass
You half imagine that Maddison’s post-match interview on Sky Sports will be remixed to a Streets song as keeps happening to Fulham manager Scott Parker.
It was a footballer, for once, offering genuine insight into what makes Leicester and himself tick.
Maddison referenced how Sky pundit Jamie Carragher had served as motivation to improve his game and ‘get the numbers up’ in order to challenge for an England place.
Well, by working on getting into the best positions in and around the box in conjunction with Rodgers and Leicester’s analytical team, Maddison now has six goals and four assists in the league this season and has scored in his last three matches.
James Maddison said Leicester will continue to go about their business in the background of their title rivals after going top of the Premier League
The 24-year-old midfielder scored the second in Leicester’s 2-0 victory against Chelsea
It’s the first time in his career that Maddison, 24, has scored in three straight league games and a clear pointer that a player linked with a move to Manchester United last year could command an every higher transfer fee now.
Just look at the way he positioned himself behind the Chelsea defence to sweep home Leicester’s second goal just before half-time.
Justin is an upgrade on Chilwell
Leicester may top the league at the moment but when it comes to financial resources, they have to know their place in the Premier League hierarchy.
Success for a club of their size and stature will, unfortunately, mean rivals with vastly larger transfer budgets will always swoop for your best players.
That’s why Ben Chilwell went to Chelsea for £50m in the summer, joining Kante, Mahrez, Danny Drinkwater and Harry Maguire in being picked off for big sums.
The key is to replace these lost players properly and Leicester haven’t missed a beat since Chilwell’s departure.
James Justin was once again impressive against Chelsea, continuing a superb season
James Justin, 22, who joined from Luton Town and was the first player Rodgers brought in, has been superb this season and many believe he can be an upgrade on Chilwell.
Justin can play at either left-back or right-back, while the Belgium international Timothy Castagne, signed from Atalanta in the summer, has done well on the right side of defence.
As Rodgers said when asked about Chilwell before the Chelsea game: ‘It’s a testament to the club and the players as to how we have coped in the last two summers. We lost Harry the first summer I was here and then Ben.
‘The recruitment has been outstanding. [Head of recruitment] Lee Congerton and the staff he has, the players they have brought in. Timothy Castagne has been amazing, James Justin has stepped up and been first class.
Ben Chilwell, who joined Chelsea for £50m in the summer, made little impact on his return
‘We always knew there’s always that possibility to lose players but for us it’s about that pipeline of players, that if one goes, we have someone who can come in with that hunger to play well.’
This spirit of renewal and clever recruitment, born from an honesty and realisation that star players will be sold, keeps Leicester powering forward.
Fantastic Fofana
That’s not to say that Leicester don’t spend the transfer windfalls that come in. They paid £30m for Wesley Fofana, their 20-year-old centre-back, in the summer but he’s turned out to be arguably the signing of the season.
After another assured performance from the young man against Chelsea, Sky pundit Jamie Redknapp suggested Fofana will be worth more than the £80m Maguire was sold for in a few years.
Fofana wins a header during another impressively composed display by the 20-year-old
‘He’s so calm, so assured, he plays with an awareness and ability that belies his tender age,’ Redknapp said.
The France under-21 international has certainly taken the move to England in his stride, forming a great understanding with Jonny Evans at the back.
Sometimes players of that age have an air of confidence that derives from not having too many knock-backs in their career and Fofana certainly showed that as he bossed Chelsea’s strikers.
With Redknapp and others suggesting Fofana could soon be one of the best defenders in European football, it’s another feather in the cap for Leicester’s recruitment team.
The young French defender gets a hug from his manager after another strong performance
Midfield balance
Rodgers has alternated tactically between a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-4-2-1 this season but there’s always the perfect balance to their midfield.
Against Chelsea, Ndidi did the hard graft at the base of midfield to disrupt passes between the lines, while Maddison and Tielemans played ahead of him but in a fairly narrow central position.
That left Harvey Barnes and Marc Albrighton to supply service for Vardy from wide areas.
It’s a successful formula that Rodgers doesn’t have to tweak too often. In some games, Tielemans, a No 8, is stationed a little deeper to provide more help to Ndidi.
Midfielder Wilfred Ndidi (left) has helped give a good balance to Leicester’s midfield
Sometimes Ayoze Perez comes in to play alongside Maddison with Justin and Albrighton wing-backs and three central defenders.
Given that a lot of Leicester’s attacks come on the transition after winning the ball back, they’re adept at smoothly working the ball forward through the midfield.
World class off the field
All elite sides need to have state-of-the-art training grounds given the increasing emphasis on sports science and analysis in the game.
After 57 years at their humble Belvoir Drive base, Leicester moved into a gleaming £80m, 185-acre complex at Seagrave last month.
Leicester’s modern £80m training complex at Seagrave opened its doors last month
The Leicester players seem to be right at home at their new state-of-the-art training ground
These modern training bases are symbolic of where a club wants to go and their new one is certainly impressive, boasting 14 full-size training pitches and 21 playing surfaces in all, fully-equipped gymnasiums, 30 bedrooms for players and staff to stay overnight and even a nine-hole golf course.
The squad and staff have already made themselves at home in training sessions over the past few weeks and it certainly illustrates how Leicester intend to maintain a top four status in the seasons ahead.
Going under the radar
Both Rodgers and Maddison were at pains to play down Leicester’s title chances despite moving top on Tuesday.
‘I don’t really think about it, it’s something which gets floated about and we have seen it all season,’ said Rodgers before playing up the quality of Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs.
Maddison also cut to the quick: ‘Let them talk about Liverpool, Man United and Spurs, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.’
Leicester were overwhelmed 3-0 by Liverpool in November but remain in the title contention
And that’s the nice situation Leicester are in. Even though they won the title only five years ago, even though they’ve been up there under Rodgers, many still don’t consider them part of the title conversation. And that’s the way Leicester like it.
They’re in the nice position of being under the radar yet clearly in possession of the quality needed to go all the way.
Lessons learned from last season
The one caveat to all this is that Leicester have been in a strong position before – 12 months ago – and promptly collapsed to finish fifth.
At the halfway stage last season, they appeared to be the only challenger to Liverpool but defeats to Man City and then Jurgen Klopp’s champions-elect over the festive period sparked a dramatic slump in form.
They only won four more league games between then and the end of the season, losing eight, and a final day defeat to Manchester United saw them drop out the top four at the end.
Leicester missed out on the Champions League on the final day of last season after their form collapsed after Christmas
A final day defeat to Manchester United saw the Foxes finish outside of the top four
Have no doubt that Rodgers and his players will have learned lessons from last season and will be determined that lightning doesn’t strike twice.
There are going to be distractions through and squad depth will be key. Leicester travel to Brentford in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday and really there’s no reason why they can’t win the competition.
They also have a very favourable draw against Slavia Prague in the last 32 of the UEFA Europa League, another competition they should go deep in.
But if they remain in the title hunt, these cups may have to become secondary concerns to reduce the workload in what is a compressed and unforgiving season.
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