Why 2015-16 has been the season of the underdog

With the advent of modern professionalism in sport we were told that romance was dead. That Corinthian spirit and upsets were limited to the FA Cup third round and the dominance of TV deals and big money wages in football and rugby would concentrate success into the hands of a fortunate few. Yet the remarkable endeavours of these two sides has flipped the script. Here is how they did it.

Underrated Managers

Claudio Ranieri

Remembered affectionately, if somewhat patronisingly, as ‘The Tinkerman’ on these shores after his time at Chelsea, Ranieri washed up at Leicester as damaged goods. Radio phone-ins were jam packed with irate City fans convinced that the Italian would take them down.

His appointment was certainly eyebrow raising. His disappointing spells with Inter and Roma were capped off by a disastrous tenure as head coach of Greece. The humiliating loss at home to the Faroe Islands saw him sacked in unceremonious fashion. His quiet and unassuming manner was the antithesis of Nigel Pearson’s abrasive style. Controversial but popular with the fans, Pearson only lost his job after the racism/prostitute scandal involving his son on the clubs Thailand tour and many credited him with inspiring the clubs’ extraordinary escape from relegation. Many doubted if Ranieri had the bottle to pull Leicester through a second campaign.

How wrong we all were. Ranieri motivated his squad to new heights, crafting them into a highly effective machine, transitioning from free-scoring entertainers into a lockdown defensive outfit.

Pat Lam

Best known as a uniquely talented No.8 who captained Samoa to their best ever World Cup finish, Lam had nurtured a promising coaching career in Super Rugby. Yet he possessed no experience of European club coaching when he rocked up at Connacht in 2013 and the wet, windy conditions that the west coast of Ireland often served up were also a far cry from the dry tracks Lam was accustomed to.

It was widely anticipated that Lam would have a steep learning curve, adjusting to the demands of the European schedule and facing off against sides with a far larger budgets and deeper squads. Further complicating matters was the initial apprehension to his favoured style of play. A skills-focused passing game with roots in New Zealand was greeted with significant suspicion – the play was often more cavalier than that of Joe Schmidt’s Leinster, who had the benchmark for enterprising rugby in the Northern Hemisphere.

But 3 years down the line and Lam has crafted a side that can legitimately claim to be one of the most entertaining sides in Europe and is now a particularly sought after coach. He even claimed recently that ‘top players’ have called him asking to move to Connacht to benefit from his expertise.

Rough Diamonds

Leicester

Although City did spend a fair amount of money since they were purchased by the duty-free mogul Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, very little of it has been spent on the stars of their season. Record signing Andrej Kramaric was purchased for about £9 million, but was a total flop and left this January after just 2 appearances all season. The next most expensive player, Leonardo Ulloa, was a bit-part player this year and at any rate had signed from Brighton.

Instead the true stars of Leicester’s season were bolts from the blue. Sportswriters player of the year Jamie Vardy was plucked from non-league Fleetwood Town for £1 million (less than 6 weeks wage for Wayne Rooney), PFA player of the year Riyad Mahrez came from second tier French side Le Havre and the much-vaunted N’Golo Kante only played a single season in Ligue 1 after being promoted with SM Caen. The side in general had a very cobbled together feel – Danny’s Simpson and Vardy were Manchester United rejects, Robert Huth was deemed surplus to requirements by Stoke and the mighty Wes Morgan spent the bulk of his career with Nottingham Forest.

The impressive nature of Leicester’s recruitment has not gone unnoticed – Arsenal poached Ben Wrigglesworth, City’s head of Technical Scouting, back in February. Even without him, the future looks bright for the Foxes squad. Young left back Ben Chilwell is highly sought after by a host of top clubs, whilst the likes of Jeff Schlupp, Daniel Amartey Demarai Grey and Joe Dodoo are all young and very promising.

Connacht

Connacht as a province have always had a tough time when it came to recruitment. Without the historic success or money of the other Irish sides they struggled to compete for quality overseas players or promising youngsters. The strength of Gaelic games in the region also meant the talent pool was more shallow.

Yet a combination of Pat Lam’s connections, a commitment to local talent and an eye for promising youngsters who had failed to make it through the academy system elsewhere assembled a balanced side brimming with pace and power.

Young stars Robbie Henshaw, Eoin Mckeon and Tiernan O’Halloran came up through the provinces academy and playing representative rugby for local clubs. Henshaw and O’Halloran, apart from the physical abilities, have unusually well rounded skill-sets due to their background in Gaelic Games. The seam of local talent rooted the team in the local area, connecting the fans that flocked to the Sportsground to their heroes on the pitch. Henshaw is moving on to Leinster in the autumn, but his development is very much rooted in the West.

Complementing the local boys are the rejects, the castaways who weren’t valued by the ‘big’ provinces. Top scorer Matt Healy never made it past his Dublin senior club, the hulking Ultan Dillane failed to progress through the Munster ranks and the electric Niyi Adeolokun was likewise underrated by Leinster. They all found a home and game time with province and rewarded this faith with exceptional performances. Adeolokun scored crucial tries in the play-off semis and final, Healy ran them in all season and Dillane was so good that he is tipped to be a fixture in the Irish second row for the next 10 years.

The third category of players, the overseas talent, is just as well stocked with hidden gems. Barking native Kieran Marmion came through the valuable Irish Exiles program for overseas players of Irish heritage, whilst hooker Tom McCartney and bullocking centre Bundee Aki were identified by Pat Lam and brought in from New Zealand. Aki in particular has been a huge success and could well play for Ireland when he qualifies on residency in 2017.

Unique Playing Style

Old-School Leicester

After the rise of Guardiola’s Barcelona and Del Bosque’s Spain, the European footballing consensus shifted towards possession-based play. English clubs and the national team were crucified in the media for their failures in European competition and their inability to adjust to the new normal. The fact that a player like Andy Carroll could be sold for over £30 million was indicative that English clubs had their priorities wrong.

A few years on and the Premier League is wall-to-wall sides playing 4-2-3-1 with platoons of crafty No.10s. Leicester under Ranieri did not subscribe to the formation du jour or try to emulate Barcelona. Whether this was matter of tactical philosophy or decision driven by Leicester lack of a proper 10 is only known to Ranieri.

Instead the Italian set his team out in a classical 4-4-2, a throwback to the days of strike partnerships and all-action midfielders. It worked for several reasons; firstly Danny Drinkwater was not mobile enough to function as a 10 but sitting deeper gave him time and space to launch long through balls to Jamie Vardy.

Secondly N’Golo ‘Duracell Bunny’ Kante’s boundless energy allowed him to sweep in front of the back four as effectively as two men, whilst his pace often meant he would intercept the ball and launch a counter-attack himself.

Thirdly the solid framework ensured that every player understood their role to a tee, ensuring defensive fidelity. The likes of Marc Albrighton understood their first duty was to defend, meaning that the midfield was rarely overrun and a good shape was maintained.

The importance of Leicester’s shape cannot be overvalued – although they undoubtedly have some great players, their is a reason many pundits thought that Newcastle had a better chance of staying up this season; Leicester have a shallow squad light on prestige players. But by riding their luck with injuries and having faith in the system they showed they could be far more than the sum of their parts.

Modern Connacht

Irish sides have rarely been associated with running, free-flowing rugby (even Joe Schmidt’s celebrated Leinster side was pretty structured) and Connacht even less so. Therefore the sight of Pat Lam’s side carving apart first champions Glasgow Warriors and then the perennial contenders Leinster was particularly jarring.

For Lam’s adventurous game plan to work he needed players from 1 to 15 be able to offload and pass accurately off both hands. These skills may seem fundamental to you, but the number of promising moves that are wrecked by cack-handed props and ill-timed passes is beyond belief. Nearly every club game you will have watched this season will have included at least one such clanger.

So we can see that Connacht’s game is high risk, but it also undeniably high reward. By using a second row or flanker to play first receiver and link the play, Lam could spread his backs across the pitch, creating uncertainty in the opposition defence and often overlaps that quick wingers can exploit. The side also borrow elements of what made Bath so successful last season; fly-half AJ McGinty will take the ball to the gail line á la George Ford, forcing the defence to commit and creating space outside of him.

Both sides have caught many by surprise this year. Next season they will be scalps and opponents will be far better prepared. Most worrying for Leicester is the possibility of losing talisman Vardy to Arsenal – he will have to decide one way or another after Euro 2016. A word of warning should also be uttered about Ranieri; since his sacking by Chelsea all those years ago he has never stayed in a job for more than two seasons. Often the pattern is a hugely successful first season (such as at Juventus and Roma) beating expectation, before bad signings and incoherent tactics lead to a slide in results. That is not to say that this will happen again, but you can certainly draw some parallels.