Why A Little Tinkering Made All The Difference

Claudio Ranieri hasn’t exactly lived up to his ‘Tinkerman’ nickname since taking over at Leicester in July. Aside from the Capital One Cup line-ups where the team heavily changed, (but hey, how many Premier League sides don’t do that early on?) it’s been mostly the same starting eleven each game.

Having largely kept the faith with a core team that survived relegation and having not rushed into integrating the new signings prematurely, imagine the media’s delight when Claudio Ranieri released the team news on Saturday to face Norwich with two changes. He’d finally done some tinkering!

The decision to leave Riyad Mahrez on the bench, shoulder injury or not, raised more than a few eyebrows among Foxes fans but most ultimately agreed with it. I’m not so sure that before the match many pundits and journalists would have agreed. The winger experienced a tough run-out against Arsenal though. Mahrez found himself surrounded every time he attempted to get the ball and ultimately this contributed to it not being one of his strongest performances. Though with the start he’s made, one less impressive game is easily forgiven.

A thought did cross my mind about our attacking abilities without him. He’s been such a key part of most of the goals we’ve scored this season, not only from his assists but with the goals he’s bagged himself. But Norwich away had the feel of a game that may need lots of defensive work and possibly even one where Leicester would need to dog it out. In those kind of games a player like Mahrez, who isn’t built or asked to contribute much defensively, becomes a luxury you cannot always afford.

Replacing Mahrez on the wing, Ranieri pushed Jeffrey Schlupp up from left-back, with Christian Fuchs coming in to make his full league début and slot in at fullback. It’s easy to see why Nigel Pearson signed the Austrian. His experience shone through and he made some great instinctive decisions and crosses. He demonstrated once again that he’s not afraid to get forward and put crosses into the box either. What I perhaps liked the most about having Fuchs there is the passion he brings. He’s a player you feel genuinely loves playing for you and that’s something as a fan I can quickly get behind.

It’s worth noting the sheer impact that moving Schlupp forwards had for Leicester. For a while now fans have agreed that the Ghana international’s best position has been on the wing in support of attack, and pushing him further up yesterday made a big difference. He can play at left-back if needed but his attacking nature can become a liability there. Up on the left wing though, Norwich didn’t seem to know what to do with him and his pace. When he broke against the run of play yesterday he left everybody behind and demonstrated great link-up play with N’Golo Kante to get our second goal. He perhaps should have scored in the first half from a peach of a cross that Marc Albrighton supplied so he looked thrilled to get on the score sheet.

Schlupp continued to threaten throughout the game and showed a tremendous amount of energy. Marc Albrighton started a second successive league match on the other wing having won his place back and also caused Norwich problems. With Nathan Dyer due to be back, I think Ranieri will face some selection dilemmas to decide exactly which two of the four wingers to play at Southampton after the International break.

After Arsenal put five past us last weekend, a few of us did suspect the back four might change. While clean sheets are preferable it hadn’t really cost us any points. However last week was their first big test and a demonstration of a quality side who possessed an attacking advantage that our defence just couldn’t handle; speed. While Norwich weren’t likely to be quite as dangerous in that respect, Ranieri made one further change with a decision to change the right-back.

Richie De Laet has had a tough start to the season. Often left isolated due to how high up Mahrez likes to play and slipping up in a few earlier games. I actually thought despite a very early wobble against Arsenal, he was one of the better players in the second half. He made defensive blocks, clearances and interceptions and continued to push on to provide crosses for our forwards. He did look somewhat energy sapped come the final whistle though.

Replacing him was a man who has spent most of the last year on the fringes of the Leicester team, Danny Simpson. He made very few appearances last season and had so far only the made the bench this season. According to Claudio Ranieri, he’d been pushing for a start with his performances in training. He’s not quite as attacking minded as De Laet which might be a factor in why he started.

The back four looked fairly solid in the first half, dealing well with the rare occasions Norwich made it into the final third. So well in fact that Kasper Schmeichel had a very relaxed forty-five minutes.

Norwich had a total of 16 corners in our half, the majority of which came in the second half when we were leading. It’s a high amount for any team to have to defend and I’m almost certain that we wouldn’t have been able to withstand that amount of pressure in previous seasons. The pretty solid pairing of Huth and Morgan were responsible for clearing many of the opportunities created by those set pieces but did have help from their new fullbacks. With Huth winning the majority of headers he went for again and commanding the box, it’s easy to forget that the big German has only been in the side since January.

Away days are never easy and Norwich were always going to dominate possession as the home side. Ranieri has really set us up this season as a great counter-attacking side so this aspect suited us. The changes he made to the team simply provided the Foxes with a more robust set-up to withstand Norwich’s attacks while also allowing us to break with both speed and danger on the attack.

Although we don’t have to factor in the African Cup of Nations this year, it’s still reassuring to see a Leicester side that can function, and more importantly, still look very impressive on the attack without Riyad Mahrez. If the winger were to get injured or to be poached by a bigger club we know we have other options. It sounds even better when you remember that Nathan Dyer has been out for several weeks now as well.

While I don’t expect this level of tinkering to happen again and again, I think Claudio Ranieri has found a solid set-up for away games. A traditional 4-4-2 formation with lots of pace for counter-attacking. Norwich couldn’t handle Jamie Vardy and Schlupp and they became unplayable which is partly what led to the penalty. Rightfully, Vardy has another chance at playing for England next weekend and continued his rich vein of form. Although Sergio Aguero put in a big effort to catch him up in the leading goalscorers list, he still tops it.

Ranieri has an extra week to deliberate his next team selection before another away game thanks to the International break. On October 17th the Foxes will face a particularly buoyant Southampton, the Saints having downed Chelsea away from home.

It’s the first time in a long time that I can recall us having an alternative option (or two) in almost every position. This year we have something that resembles not just a team, but a squad. This can only help us in a bid for survival and to make the step of where do you go next if you manage to become an established team.