Leicester's Defence

[Sionnach gorm]

It seems to be unimportant in the Prem to talk about a defence. There is nothing sexy about it. In the Prem, known for it lightning fast pace and high scoring games, it would make no sense to even mention it. Unlike other leagues, a score here of 2-3 or a 4-2 is not that uncommon. It seems that the Prem is geared for scoring, the goals against are just part of the play. Unsurprisingly, I have found little written about Leicester's Defence. No real analysis, just a dropped "another clean sheet by Leicester". Also not surprising is the reason why Leicester has slowly crafted a better and better Defence. Apart from the the excellent players all committed to the philosophy of defending, there is the 442 formation, first made famous by Arrigo Sacchi's Milan, and putting a nail in the coffin of the "libero". The 442 (classic not the diamond one) is uncommon in the Prem. Pearson used it a few times, so did some others ( not often), but generally the 4231 has won out here. The resurgence of the 442 has helped teams such as Atletico win against the juggernauts of Barcelona and Madrid, by limiting their ability to score. Clearly no formation can do something unless you have the likes of a Wes, Huth, Kante and the likes, able to execute it properly. While all the pundits seem to concentrate on the "downturn of Leicester's ability of scoring" the defense goes largely ignored. What struck me most was that if Leicester did not have this defence we might be looking already at third place. A good defence keeps you up during dry scoring spells. It wins championships, however sophomoric that may sound. Culturally this may be a turning point. If Leicester's run becomes a Prem winner I might finally see an article or two about something I know so little about; Defence

[Trav Le Bleu]

I'd rather talk about paragraphs.

[ALC Fox]

Our defence is wonderful. Who would've thought it when we were struggling to produce a clean sheet earlier in the season?

Claudio Ranieri deserves tremendous credit for this turnaround, as do the players themselves.

[weller54]

I'd rather talk about paragraphs.

Para para para graphs oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!

[Vlad the Fox]

Match of the day did a bit of analysis at the weekend.

[Renart]

Match of the day did a bit of analysis at the weekend.

 

On paragraphs? Part of a new format or structure? I must have missed that....

[AKCJ]

Huth and Morgan have been the best pairing this season. Simpson has been solid and Fuchs has been superb. They're reasons we've had this incredible success.

[Kitchandro]

Amazing what Claudio has done with the defence. At the start of the season we were leaking goals all over the place.

[Devonfox1884]

Huth and Morgan have been the best pairing this season. Simpson has been solid and Fuchs has been superb. They're reasons we've had this incredible success.

Agreed. Riyad and Vards get the headlines but the way these guys have improved... Unbelievable. That being said no-one should be singled out, from the manager to the kit man this has been a collective effort which everyone associated with the club should be proud of.

[Richard]

In terms of formation, the general defensive shape is nothing spectacular. Two banks of 4, you'll see it in 90% of games you watch when a team is defending. Where we've improved in recent weeks is specific roles, like highlighted in the MOTD analysis and on a few blogs around. You don't hear much about tactical analysis full stop in this country apart from maybe Monday Night Football on occasion, people just don't care about it - people care about goals, drama and action not how disciplined Christian Fuchs is at tucking in when the ball's on the opposing flank.

 

For a bit of insight, it's a bit old but I read this fantastic article on Kante the other day. It doesn't just reel of his stats (we all know them) but gives examples, from the Arsenal game, of how he won the ball, positioning etc.

 

http://13steps.co/2016/02/22/ngolo-kante-analysis/

 

Give it a minute of so for the gifs to load before reading

[Guest CityFan 06]

The back four have been excellent. The organisation of the defence is superb.

[Koke]

Amazing what Claudio has done with the defence. At the start of the season we were leaking goals all over the place.

I remember coming away from the Southampton game at St Mary's thinking we can't keep scoring 2/3 goals per game just to draw or win. It's not sustainable. It took CR a while but since we beat Everton away on 19th December our defensive shape has consistently looked phenomenal. Since the turn of the year we've conceded 6 goals. Ranieri must have drilled him relentlessly.

[Wymsey]

Hope we sign Dragovic.

[Countryfox]

Definitely one of the biggest improvements that CR has brought to the club and a very key part of our success.   The media (as they search long and hard to find the secret of our success) have now identified our 'old fashioned' back four as yet another reason as to why we are top.  CR has certainly highlighted and corrected our 'leakage' problem and imo has added something that I'm not sure NP would have.    Basically he has put in two different types of full back and got Wes and Huth to play to their strengths and keep it simple ...    and it works !

 

We imo have been blessed with two excellent managers ....   one who built a fantastic team of hungry players and the other who has polished that team and took it to the next level.   I don't think either could have done what the other one did with the same degree of success.       Luck ? ...    Fate ? ....    Smart owners ? ...         Who cares, we're top !    

[Sionnach gorm]

In terms of formation, the general defensive shape is nothing spectacular. Two banks of 4, you'll see it in 90% of games you watch when a team is defending. Where we've improved in recent weeks is specific roles, like highlighted in the MOTD analysis and on a few blogs around. You don't hear much about tactical analysis full stop in this country apart from maybe Monday Night Football on occasion, people just don't care about it - people care about goals, drama and action not how disciplined Christian Fuchs is at tucking in when the ball's on the opposing flank.

For a bit of insight, it's a bit old but I read this fantastic article on Kante the other day. It doesn't just reel of his stats (we all know them) but gives examples, from the Arsenal game, of how he won the ball, positioning etc.

http://13steps.co/2016/02/22/ngolo-kante-analysis/

Give it a minute of so for the gifs to load before reading

Thank you. That was about the best I've read on Leicester's Defence. But it was a section of the total article.

[paragraph]

Recently Kante was interviewed and was quoted as saying " On the defensive side, he [Ranieri] insisted on a few points for me earlier in the season; when to drop back and change my position, so I help defenders in the defensive phase,".

[paragraph]

Strangely no one asked a small example of what those points were. That might have been interesting.

[Vardinio'sCat]

 Funnily enough, I thought the media has really woken up to our defence in the last week or 2.

 

It's amazing how long it took them though, given this is people who are full time football writers!

[ItalianGuyWhoLikesLCFC]

"Attack sells tickets, defence wins championships"

[Captain...]

Our back four has been immense but it has been helped by our attacking exploits. Teams are scared to commit men forwards because of the pace we attack with, this keeps full backs at home and midfielders on the back foot. The last team that failed to take our attacking threat seriously was Man City and they got badly punished the last 5 games has seen 4 clean sheets as teams are scared to attack us, but fortunately haven't been good enough to keep us out. The team that showed the most intent came away with a point, but we were missing Kante for that game.