Leciester City endured another Premier League defeat over the weekend, with Marc Cucurella scoring the winner for Chelsea.
The Spanish international managed to break the deadlock in the second-half after Mads Hermansen became the first player to stop Cole Palmer from the penalty spot with Leicester now six points off Wolves in the 17th-place.
With ten Premier League games left to go, the Foxes find themselves in a tough position if they’re to survive this season, with Gary Lineker already convinced Leicester are going down having lost 12 of their last 13 league games.
Yet Chelsea’s goalscorer Cucurella has said Leicester did something in west London that completely threw the Blues off guard heading into Sunday’s fixture.
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Chelsea were surprised by Leicester’s new tactical set-up
Speaking to Chelsea’s official website, the Spanish international shared how Chelsea were surprised by Leicester’s defensive, set-up, with Ruud van Nistelrooy switching to a five-at-the-back system that worked out quite well for the Foxes.
Wayne Rooney noted how impressed he was with Leicester’s defensive performance, and for Cucurella, the switch surprised Chelsea, with the Blues struggling to break through the relegation-threatened Premier League side.
Cucurella said: “It was difficult because we prepared for the game in a certain way and then Leicester came here and set up with a different approach. So we had to adjust and maybe that took us a little bit of time, because they had a lot of players behind the ball to make things difficult for us.
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“We had to remain patient, not rush things and trust that what we had planned would eventually come good. In the second half, we did that and managed to get the goal we needed. Then it was a case of defending well and being solid and I thought the entire team did that very well.”
What else has been said about Leicester’s new defensive system?
A change in tactics might be too little too late for Leicester given how few games there are left in the Premier League season and who the Foxes have to face in their next slate of league fixtures, but the switch up did seem to catch people’s attention.
Leicester fans liked what they saw from the system, whilst Van Nistelrooy lauded Luke Thomas’ performance at the back after the former England youth international was brought back into the starting XI.
Indeed, Leicester might have found their new shape to end the season on, and with some luck, the Foxes could start winning some points and begin bridging the gap between themselves and Wolves in 17th-place.