Positional Play, Progression Boxes, Fluidity: Enzo Maresca at Leicester

Photo: Twitter account Leicester

My first post in this blog in English is dedicated to the first official game played in Championship by Leicester who appointed Enzo Maresca to try to get the Foxes back in Premier League.

I analyzed some patterns which was implemented by the former assistant of Pep Guardiola at City last year, a collaboration fully visible in the Leicester's structure during the match.

RICARDO PEREIRA AS INVERTED FULLBACK

Enzo Maresca decided to mirror the shape Pep Guardiola used at Manchester City last year, therefore the 4-3-3 moves towards a 3-2-2-3 in build-up phase and a 3-2-5 in the progression phase and then trasformed in a 4-1-4-1/4-4-2 without the ball.

The player who is key of this flexibility is Ricardo Pereira, nominally a right full-back who inverts his position in the centre of the field pairing Harry Winks. In this example we can appreciate the position of Pereira moving in the progression zone (behind first line of pressure) in order to support the build-up which first line is composed by the two center-back Faes-Vestergaard and the left-back Callum Doyle. This structure can be easily compared to the one created by Pep Guardiola last year at Manchester City: Ricardo Pereira is basically covering the same duties requested to John Stones last year, while the defensive line is composed by players with a strong physical structure and able to win duels.

In addition, the build-up structure 3+2 as seen above has impact not only to this phase of play but also to the progression phase and for the defensive transition phase, as I will describe below.

BOXES IN THE PROGRESSION PHASE

An other item which makes Leicester's shape similar to the Manchester City is the creation of the central box in order to progress the ball. This is the situation created in order to create connection against the tight lines of the opponents and to create positional superiority, a focal aspect of the positional play.

The 4-3-3 implemented by Enzo Maresca creates those boxes by advancing Ndidi in the zone between the opposition's midfield and defensive lines since his nominal zone is occupied by the inversion movement of Ricardo Pereira. Looking at this example, the four players creating the box are in numerical superiority against (4 vs 3) allowing them to progress the ball centrally. This superiority allowed Dewsbury-Hall to receive ball between the lines in potential dangerous zone. The limit of this shape is given by the characteristic of the players, since Ndidi does not have the same vision and the same quality of Dewsbury-Hall in finding the right solution for the final pass, therefore wasting many situation of good possession.

Source: TheAnalyst

Looking at numbers, the Nigerian midfielder is not included in the list of players involved is shot-ending sequences, this means that the chain most used to get a shot was the one formed by Dewsbury-Hall and Mavididi on the left side, while McAteer was able to be involved only when found through switches of play.

STRUCTURE IN REST-DEFENCE

The structure of a team during the build-up phase, as said before, is strongly linked with the defensive transition phase: the five players composing the initial phase of play are also responsible to provide the proper cover in case the opponent recover the ball.

As we can appreciate through this example, the 3+2 structure allows Leicester to deny access in the central zone to the opponent in case of quick transition from defence to attack. In this situation Coventry can progress the transition only through wide channels. In this situation we can also appreciate the importance of Ndidi, who was able to track the run of the opponent avoiding a potential situation in which the Coventry players could reach the central zone in front of the penalty area. This situation probably explains the reason why Ndidi was preferred to Denis Praet from start; however, the Belgian player was the game changer when he replaced the Nigerian, therefore this will be the first point of discussion for Maresca and his staff in the definition of the next steps.