Brendan-ball is back with Tielemans and Maddison at the controls - but is it sustainable?
Photo: @beckytLCFC
After last Saturday’s 2-0 win at Goodison Park, Sky Sports understandably chose to interview Youri Tielemans, scorer of yet another wonderful goal, and James Maddison, chosen as Player of the Match after two assists and an entire performance of genuine authority.
Tielemans may get the star man billing in his song. For a while now the tag has been equally applicable to Maddison.
It was nice to live in the moment and enjoy a game but soon the sight of the pair standing side by side answering questions about their superlative displays prompted two thoughts: this should have happened more often, and we’ll miss them when they’re gone.
The glory days
While so much of football is about constructing a team that can win games, for Leicester over the past four years it’s been more about building a team around Tielemans and Maddison.
When Brendan Rodgers first arrived at the club in February 2019, he was fortunate to inherit the newly-signed Tielemans. Then again, the Belgian has always felt like not just a star name but a player we’ve been lucky to have. Maddison is fitting into that category too now.
It’s a sign of how bad things got early in the season that, in desperate search of solutions, fans have wondered whether one or the other should be sidelined to re-balance the team.
During that terrible start, we pined for the relative glory days of 2019 - they may not have resulted in a title win or FA Cup success but they showcased a Brendan Rodgers team at its best, untroubled by various ongoing injury crises.
The way Tielemans and Maddison toyed with Everton on Saturday brought back memories of that period: a team going away from home and stamping its authority on the game. Domination through technical excellence.
Football fans can find pride in their team in a few different ways. Full-blooded commitment to the cause or a wealth of homegrown talent have made us proud at various points in the past (while seeing your players selected to be part of a World Cup squad is another topical example).
The Rodgers team of 2019 arguably gave us a chance to be proud for a different reason. It was chest-puffed-out, striding-around, we’re-bloody-good-at-this pride. You can’t avoid feeling like that when you’re beating teams 9-0 in their own back yard. From the list above, the 4-1 win at Villa Park also stands out.
As the shots rained down on Jordan Pickford’s goal last Saturday, things began to have a similar feel.
It’s been a hasty turnaround. Only a couple of weeks ago, that would have been unthinkable - for some of us at least. Everton had their chances but the striking thing was that the onslaught never came, partly because of Leicester’s ability to manage the game. We now have things we didn’t have a few weeks ago: hope, optimism, a way forward.
Role play
Throughout his time as manager, Rodgers has tinkered with the roles played by Tielemans and Maddison based on what else has been available to him - or what hasn’t.
In 2019, the manager seemed to want his two star midfielders playing as close to each other as possible. Wilfred Ndidi sat in front of the defence, allowing Maddison and Tielemans to play as twin number 8s.
That was a key feature of the 4-match winning run at the end of the 2018/19 season and it was evident the pair struck up an understanding very quickly. Here were two players at the heart of the team who you trusted with the ball.
A few months later came the magnificent 8-match winning run, by which time Maddison had been moved into a number 10 role after the signing of Ayoze Perez to play on the right. Tielemans had a bit more defending to do, Maddison less so.
Primarily still known for being central midfielders, both have nevertheless been pushed to the right side of the pitch this year, Tielemans in a hybrid right-back role and Maddison drifting in from the same side of the pitch.
This rotation of position, also involving Timothy Castagne pushing up to fill the right-wing slot that’s been vacant on and off for four years, not only brings natural movement off the ball - it brings Leicester’s star men closer again.
The opening goal at Goodison Park will be remembered for its individual brilliance but it also showcased the two sides to Leicester City’s attack when it all comes together. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harvey Barnes add dynamism on the left to complement the technical excellence of Maddison and Tielemans.
These four players form the mainstay of Leicester’s front six - there’s a straight fight for the other two positions at the base of midfield and the tip of the attack. The old guard - Jamie Vardy and Wilfred Ndidi - are in one corner. The fresher faces - Patson Daka and Boubakary Soumare - are in the other.
The 2021 summer transfer window has already been denoted a failure but while it’s difficult to see the notorious Southampton duo paying off, the fact that Daka and Soumare got the nod at Goodison shows it may yet come good overall. What we don’t know yet is whether the team Rodgers trusted on Merseyside is a sign of the next step in Leicester’s evolution and future, or merely his latest short-term solution to wider problems the club will try to fix in the market.
Winter warmers
Although it feels strange to be talking about the bigger picture after the agony of the summer and the chaos of the opening few fixtures, the January transfer window is imminent and Leicester’s decision-makers have to decide where to pool their resources.
Realistically, there won’t be wholesale changes. There never are in the middle of a season. The contract situations of Tielemans and Maddison loom large though. Tielemans will leave on a free next summer with Maddison set to follow a year later as things stand. So is it more of a priority to strengthen the weak areas or prepare in advance for the departures of the two star men at the heart of the team’s revival?
From the little we know, it appears the emphasis will be on the former - left-back, centre-back and right wing. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see a central midfielder coming in either. January transfers are notorious but Leicester have prospered in the winter window before, while the impact of Wout Faes has strengthened fans’ confidence in more good work being done this time around.
Faes has brought balance to the team, adding steel to afford our talented attacking players the time and space to go and win games. The way he quickly stamped out Everton attacks through eliminating Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s attempts to hold the ball up on the halfway line was just the latest example. If another player can arrive in January and have a similar impact in a problem position, it would be revolutionary.
Meanwhile, two key contracts tick down further and, while Tielemans and Maddison are working hard in Qatar, the planning for Leicester City’s future without them continues.
