Blog: Leicester City - a tactical analysis

The Premier League champions face a tough-looking couple of months as they prepare for the start of the Champions League next week, along with the added expectation that comes with winning the title.

Leicester City lost N’Golo Kante in the summer, although the importance of the midfielder’s contribution is becoming even more apparent as the weeks pass.

“He recovers the balls in this stadium and the other stadium, everywhere, he is unbelievable,” remarked Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri after the Mali international’s dominant display in the 2-1 win over Chelsea last season. 

It was always going to be a difficult task to replace the central midfielder, but Danny Drinkwater has had three different partners in the opening three matches of the season. Nampalys Mendy appears to be the Italian’s long-term solution at present, although he has been ruled out of this game after picking up an ankle injury on his debut against Arsenal.

That leaves either Andy King or Daniel Amartey to line-up alongside former Manchester United youth product Drinkwater. Amartey is likely to win that battle after a decent performance against Swansea City before the international break and due to combative nature.

The Ghanaian is difficult to beat in one-v-one situations and is excellent at breaking up the play. However, the role of the two central players will remain the same, with the main task to distribute the ball into wide areas as quickly as possible.

On the wings, Riyad Mahrez looks to pick up the ball and drift laterally between the lines in order to find shooting opportunities and to link-up with his frontmen. The Algerian is prominent when The Foxes don’t have the ball, as he offers an outlet for the defensive pressure that he can quickly turn into a counter-attack.

Marc Albrighton on the other side tends to stay closer to the touchline and provide crosses into the strikers. Liverpool’s centre-backs will certainly be tested from runs into the channels from both Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki.

Ranieri now has an abundance of options in forward positions with Islam Slimani and Ahmed Musa arriving in the transfer window to join Leonardo Ulloa. The new acquisitions may see Musa or Okazaki play in midfield in future matches, but they definitely have more strength in-depth in comparison to last term.

Leicester will provide another stern test from set-pieces, with centre-backs Robert Huth and Wes Morgan able to impose themselves physically in an attacking manner as well as defensively. 

For more from Paul, follow him on Twitter @paulwilkesfooty.