Three Leicester Lessons Learnt in Irritating Defeat to Man City | OneFootball

Leicester City under Ruud Van Nistelrooy has thus far been positive but irritating. The playstyle finally has a clear vision and direction, and the players have improved their performances, but there remain lingering problems which the head coach has been unable to tackle. Some of those plagued the team against Manchester City, where the Foxes lost 0-2 despite a dominating second half performance.

So, there is clearly much to learn on how the King Power side relies on certain players and what they need to do going forward to start gaining points. Ultimately, Nistelrooy's team can play as well as they want, but if they cannot defend well enough or score enough goals then they do not deserve to accumulate points.

Leicester City's new dynamos & clockworks

Under Enzo Maresca, one of the East Midland side's elemental characteristics was the midfield. As the foundation of play, the combination of talents, understanding, roles, and versatility in those positions was critical to how Leicester won the ball, possessed it, progressed it, and finally created with it. That was the foundation.

At that time, I spoke of 'a dynamo & and clockwork': the partnership of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harry Winks. One would create, the other would set the tempo. Like a clock, the pair would 'tick' to pass the ball around one another and 'tock' to progress swiftly between compact defensive lines with technical passes and interplay rather than searching long-balls.

This is what I saw from Ruud Van Nistelrooy's Leicester City midfield against Manchester City. The differences comprise the individuals and supporting roles. For Maresca, the supporting role primarily lay with Wilfred Ndidi as an attacking midfielder who was to arrive late in the box for a shot at goal. This is not the case with Nistelrooy's Foxes. Additionally, there is an extra dynamo added to the cast.

The four in question are of course Winks, Boubakary Soumare, Bilal El Khannouss, and Facundo Buonanotte. Khannouss is our dynamo, supported by a free-moving wing-starting dynamo in Buonanotte. Winks remains the best for this 'clockwork' role of just passing amongst the team and linking up with players on the wings, in defence, and further upfield.

Soumare takes a new supporting role in the cast. Instead of being an attacking midfielder, he is a possessive and progressive force designed to play one-twos with the dynamo and clockwork to free either himself or them for a better passing option or to collect the ball and carry it himself. The Frenchman dribbled against the Citizens, held the ball well, and progressed it to where the two dynamos could collect to make an impact.