It hasn’t been exactly a smooth ride for the foxes in the 18-19 campaign, in fact, the club has gone through a lot, including the tragic passing of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and a managerial change which Claude Puel was replaced by Brendan Rodgers. However, at the end of the season, the club sat at the upper mid table of the Premier League, and the team showed some potentials to improve in the upcoming season.



The club made some big changes during the transfer window last summer. While seeing Mahrez join Manchester City on a record breaking fee, the club filled the gap with a bright English attacking midfielder James Maddison. The club also recruited the 31-year-old Jonny Evans to replace Robert Huth who retired at the end of last season. At the RB position, the Foxes spent big to get Ricardo Pereira to sign for the club; the Portuguese showed some great qualities during his time at FC Porto and OGC Nice, and proved himself to be one of the top wingbacks in Europe.



The first half of the season was steady enough to put them at the 7th spot, but the team showed some struggles in the attacking third, especially when they found out that their new Algerian winger offers not nearly as much creativity as their former one.

The team mostly played counter attack with a 4-2-3-1 formation like they have been in previous seasons. While Chilwell and Pereira would come up high to cross the ball when they do have possession, the team mostly relies on their clinical center forward Jamie Vardy to counter attack. During a typical counter attack, the team has Gray, Albrighton, and Maddison to push up the field, and they are usually able to slip a good pass to Vardy around the edge of the box to finish the job.

Vardy and Maddison link up perfectly to win them the game against Chelsea

Despite being at the 7th place after Christmas, the team Claude led could clearly have done better. Congestion in offense and poor defensive coordination have given points away to teams they should have won against. In the winter transfer window, the club shipped Iborra back to Spain after a disappointing spell at the club. While Adrien Silva was sent to the struggling Monaco for a loan deal, the Foxes received Youri Tielemans in exchange. The club also brought back their loanee Harvey Barnes from the Championship to add more weight in the attacking third. While the 22-year-old Belgian international needs no introduction, Harvey Barnes was tremendous for West Brom in the Championship, bagging 9 goals during his 25-game-spell.

The two new additions were able to make a strong impact on the team. Unfortunately, the man that brought them in, couldn’t stay with the team long enough to witness more of their success. After a 6 games without a win starting match day 22, Claude Puel was sacked and replaced by Brendan Rodgers.



During the six games, the team’s defense gave Puel all kinds of headaches. The two fullbacks usually go up high and are unable to track back, leaving the center backs extremely vulnerable, especially when there’s a 35-year-old Wes Morgan in the lineup.

The prime example is how the Wolves created 3 goals exploiting this deadly weakness

As excellent Chilwell is pushing forward, his lack of defensive awareness causes some problems for the team



Poor coordination from the center backs left Jota onside. Danny Simpson in no man’s land, resulting in Wes Morgan to chase the pacey striker



Great vision from Neves, who saw the huge gap in Leicester’s defense

This one from the Man Utd game at home. Perreira poorly turned the ball over to Pogba, who saw Rashford running to a huge empty gap in Leicester defense.

However, it all seems to have turned around once Brendan Rodgers stepped up to the role. Brendan Rodgers established himself as a high-pressing oriented coach during his tenure at Liverpool. Despite the lack of similarities between the Liverpool side that almost won the league and the current Leicester City squad, Rodgers ideology translated wonderfully already during his first game at King Power Stadium.



Ndidi bullied the ball away from Chambers’s feet. With a direct through pass comes a simple Rodgers-style goal.

Ndidi is also given freedom to press up high, offering the team some easy chances after recovering the ball.

Rodgers chooses to play a 4-3-3 formation, where Ndidi alone will be the midfield anchor or the team, to fully utilize the two talented attacking midfielders Maddison and Tielemans. And the wings are usually occupied with Albrighton, Gray, or Harvey Barnes. Ndidi took on more defensive responsibility, and will drop back when needed; this ultimately allows the whole team to press further up the field, without sacrificing too much from the anchor position.

Note in the slideshow above that Ndidi’s positioning has been more limited in the defensive 2/3 of the field after Rodgers’s appointment (February ). He’s able to offer more security for the team’s defense, in order to free up Maddison and Tielemans to orchestrate the build ups.

Notice in the comparison above, Leicester’s ball recoveries have crawled up the field significantly after Rodgers’s arrival. Optimizing the team’s dynamic style, while minimizing vulnerability in the back four.

Comparing to the 4-2-3-1 position Puel used to play, Rodgers’s formation is much better dealing with defensive mistakes this team commits frequently, and better at intercepting in the opponent’s half.

Jonny Evans goes up to challenge Gudmonsson, resulting in Maguire getting sent off to prevent the 1-on-1 situation.

An enormous gap in the midfield allows Andre Gray to receive a comfortable flick from Deeney

When the team is attacking, the team has been finding much more success comparing to the previous half of the season. Besides Jamie Vardy being consistently excellent for the Foxes. Players like Tielemans and Barnes also stepped up massively.

Tielemans has world class vision and fantastic footwork for a player of his age. He’s calm under pressure and can also slip a great pass to make something out of nothing.

Tielemans picking out Vardy with an accurate cross

I’m not sure how he spotted this run through this tiny gap, but he did it brilliantly.

Tielemans being very comfortable to carry the ball forward and flips the switch once he sees Vardy ready to be unleashed.

If any player who truly surprised me with his quality on this team, it has to be Harvey Barnes. During the 5 months he has been with the Foxes, his performance shown that he can potentially turn into a Ross Barkley-esque player.

Barnes has an excellent understanding of space and is brilliant at creating opportunities with these simple short passes.

A little link up passage between him and Maddison resulted in a great chance for Jamie Vardy.

As a very well-built athlete, Barnes is able to keep his powerful shots from flying over the crossbar.

With his fantastic workrate, Barnes can cause a lot of problems for the opposition once he spots a defensive gap.

What’s most impressive about Barnes is just his ability to just cut through opposition with ridiculous pace.

And of course, James Maddison plays a crucial role in Leicester City’s attack. He is showing some great confidence for a player who’s just having his first season in the Premier League. Despite being a brilliant passer, Maddison seems to be a victim of the Philippe Coutinho syndrome, he has a tendency of firing far outside the box when he feels like it, even when there’re far better options to choose from.

Albrighton made a great run to free up the right lane for Perreira. Maddison’s shot wasn’t

bad, but Perreira could’ve had a better chance of creating a goal from this scenario

Maddison again, rushing to take the shot, with Albrighton and Vardy being available options

However, none of these should be worrying for Leicester fans, Maddison is still a fantastic player and made a tremendous impact as soon as the first season he arrives in the top flight. He’ll most likely perfect his game very quickly as he matures in the Premier League.

Leicester going forward:

The Leicester team is very exciting and has lots of up and coming young talents who are ready to make an impact. The team has some obvious areas to improve during the summer, and I firmly believe that the team is ambitious with their goal in the 19/20 season.

As of today, the club has already signed Ayoze Perez. Perez has proven himself to be a solid second striker at Newcastle. He is very versatile in his attacking role, he can provide and control the ball in the attacking third, and has the ability to pick up some goals inside the box. If Rodgers wants him to play alongside Jamie Vardy, it’s a great way to diversify their attacking options. If he is to play as a solo striker, he can stretch the field and be a great target for Tielemans or Maddison’s through balls. Or, he can play as a winger for Leicester, which is an area the club needs improvements on. £30m might be a huge stack of money for Perez, but the level of versatility he offers will ultimately prove this to be a fantastic pick up for Leicester.

In the upcoming season, the club might very possibly give more opportunities to their youngsters. Players like Soyuncu and Benkovic can have real opportunities to start at the club. However, the team should still try to improve their squad in any way possible if they want to make a statement in the Premier League next season.

Here I listed some sensible transfers for the Foxes going into 2019/20 season.

Youri Tielemans: Making his deal permanent should be a no-brainer for the team. It’s incredibly rare to find talents like him, as well as being extremely fitting in Rodgers’s system. The Belgian youngsters seem pretty positive to run it back with the Foxes so far. And the fans should expect another wonderful season from him. Joachim Andersen: Andersen is a very well-rounded young center back. He is very agile for his size, and is capable of handling pressure. Andersen particularly stands out with his ball-distribution for Sampdoria. However, with a high tendency of pushing forward, his defensive partner should be prepared to handle extra defensive responsibilities. Unfortunately, the player seems to be pretty close to joining Olympique Lyon on a permanent deal soon. Sei Muroya: As Danny Simpson departed this summer, the club now needs a competent right back to be his replacement. A great selection will be Sei Muroya, an undervalued right back currently playing for FC Tokyo. He is energetic and anticipates actively in defense. Although his small frame might be exploited in the Premier League, his work ethic and defensive ability certainly make up for the flaws in his game. Fabian Schar: Schar without a doubt is THE standout player for Newcastle United during the 18/19 season. He’s not just solid defensively, but he’s also a ball-playing center back who can pose a threat by carrying the ball forward. Another reason why I think he’s a great fit is that the team complements his weakness pretty well. Schar has a high tendency of fouling, and is in fact the player with second highest amount of yellow cards in the PL last season; whereas Leicester have conceded the least amount of set piece goals in the past season, so I don’t think Rodgers would complain too much about Schar intentionally fouling the opposition in the defensive third. Schar has just joined the Magpies last summer, so I doubt Ashley will let him out cheaply. However, the option is open if Harry Maguire chooses to leave this summer. Kenneth Omeruo: Omeruo is a name that some people might be familiar with. The center back joined Chelsea way back in 2012, and has had several loan spells with multiple clubs. However, Omeruo has yet to play a competitive game with Chelsea. The player played well in the AFCON and I’m sure he would love to join a Premier League club like Leicester. Victor Wanyama: After signing NDombele, Spurs midfield is looking quite crowded, and a few player will likely be offloaded to other teams. Victor Wanyama is certainly one of the players that might be sold during the summer window. Wanyama had been fantastic prior to his injury during the 17-18 season. However, after recovering from injury, he found himself unable to compete with Sissoko for the central midfielder role. Although Wanyama is no longer the player that he once was, he is still a very solid defensive midfielder, and will add some great depth to Leicester’s bench even if he doesn’t start.

I have no reason not to be optimistic about Leicester’s new season. A 7th or 8th place finish seems extremely possible while the youngsters at the club continue to grow and gain experience in the Premier League. The position they are in is partially thankful to the club’s vision after they won the league back in 2016, as the amount of trust they put into the youngsters of this club seem to be finally paying off.