This season the only Premier League club to score successively in every match up until the weekend, was Leicester City. This article analyses how the Foxes achieved this feat, as well as what it means for Claude Puel’s team’s development. Along with whether the attack is efficient:

Claude Puel has transformed the ethos of the Leicester City team as a whole – invoking their footballing nous and technique to use as a passing, possession side. And you cannot criticise the Frenchman for emulating the global leaders; there is no better example or alternative. All the leading clubs in Europe, or worldwide, control the ball, firstly.

Rope-a-dope

Yep, that statement sounds ludicrously condescending or obvious – how can you win a match without the ball/scoring? Well, paradoxically, one of the only clubs to ever win anything prestigious with a lesser possession style was Leicester City. It could be referred to as the ‘rope-a-dope’:

The rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting style commonly associated with Muhammad Ali in his 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match against George Foreman. “In many competitive situations, rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one contender lets their opponent fatigue themselves by drawing non-injuring offensive actions. This then gives the contender an advantage towards the end of the competition or before, as the opponent becomes tired, allowing the contender to execute devastating offensive manoeuvres and thereby win.” (Via: Wikipedia)

To explain the analogy: whereas until recently, Leicester City would not particularly lull the opposition into a false sense of security, they merely soaked up the pressure – especially with N’golo Kante attached – and broke with extreme intensity and ferocity at the moment of recapturing possession. The theory in suggestion is that a balance is struck by the Foxes’ manager, whereby possession is the method – complimented by a swift counterattack.