Claude Puel, a former defensive midfielder who played almost 500 games for Monaco and
then managed the side, has found a new home at Leicester City. Having also managed at
Lille, Lyon,and OGC Nice, Puel arrived in England in June 2016 to take over at Southampton
following Ronald Koeman’s sacking. Puel lasted just under a year at the Saints, though,
and was criticised for creating a system that was solid but dull, yielding a league-leading
seven nil-nil draws (join with Middlesbrough). Ironically, Puel came to the Premier League
with a reputation for fast-paced, counter-attacking football built on a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, with
one anchoring midfielder, a box-to-box player, and a creative, attacking midfielder playing
just behind or alongside wingers who cut inside. This seemed like a natural tactical fit for
the Southampton squad at the time, but in trying to increase the Saints’ defensive
solidity, which focussed on quick pressing and withdrawing the wide players into a 4-5-1
in the middle and low block, Puel seemed unable to generate the vertical transitions that
he wanted. At Leicester City, however, Puel has another
squad that seems well-equipped to play his counter-attacking style. Leicester, after
all, won the Premier League in 2016/17 with the goals and assists of Jamie Vardy and Riyad
Mahrez coming often on the counter, with the deep-lying passing of Danny Drinkwater and
the shuttling cover of N’Golo Kante providing a solid base. Those two players have moved
on to Chelsea, but in Wilfred Ndidi Leicester have a very able, and still developing, defensive
midfielder, while Vicente Iborra provides astute passing and a significant aerial threat
going forwards – this works well in Leicester’s preferred 4-4-1-1 formation.
Leicester are built on pace, with adventurous full-backs Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson,
and wingers like Demarai Gray, Marc Albrighton, and, of course, Mahrez. They play with width,
looking to rake long diagonal balls out wide into space, for which Iborra is important
because he acts as the pivot in midfield through which play is switched.
Mahrez can play out wide or, as in recent games, off Vardy. He offers something different
to Shinji Okazaki, who has also played behind Vardy – while both have licence to find
space in the channels and provide a link between the midfield and Vardy, Okazaki tends to hold
onto the ball and lay it off to the wide players cutting inside, which works well when Mahrez
plays on the right, while Mahrez tends to carry the ball himself.
Leicester’s aim is always to create overloads in wide spaces at pace before bringing the
ball back inside to create shooting opportunities. As such, they sometimes concentrate on one
side of the pitch, with the central midfielders playing shifted across towards one side, with
the aim of creating space on the opposite flank. This means they have an overload on
one flank, and space on the other, both of which can afford attacking opportunities,
especially on the counter. Defensively, Leicester press less than Puel’s
Saints, but with the addition of Harry Maguire the Foxes now have more pace in their back
line. This means that the midfield can afford to push up more, with Ndidi sweeping back
behind a line of four to screen the centre-backs. Once Ndidi or the defensive line have won
the ball back, it is quickly shifted wide or to Iborra, who then looks to thread a through
ball to Vardy or whoever is playing off him, or to switch the play into space on the wide.
It’s a relatively simple tactical set-up that works well with the personnel that Leicester
have at their disposal, and it’s a system that Puel is comfortable with too. In short,
while Puel may have disappointed at Southampton, he has the tools and the philosophy to get
Foxes back on track playing simple, but effective, counter-attacking football.