http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/feb/29/premier-league-talking-points
3) Norwich discover a blueprint for handling Leicester
For the best part of 89 minutes Norwich’s gameplan worked to perfection against Leicester and may provide a blueprint for other clubs to follow between now and the end of the season, particularly at the King Power Stadium, where the Premier League leaders still have to play West brom, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Southampton, West Ham, Swansea and Everton. Norwich deployed a three-man central defence, with Russell Martin almost playing as a sweeper, sat deep and in effect asked Leicester to try to break them down without being able to get in behind. “I look at how other teams set up against certain opposition and the only team who has played that way against them has been
Manchester United,” Alex Neil, Norwich’s manager said, referring to their three-man defence. “I watched that game – it was 1-1 but Man United should have won. I looked at that and thought we could deploy that and it would help us.”
Leicester enjoyed 59% possession against Norwich – remarkably it was only the third time this season that they have had more of the ball than their opponents – yet they registered only three shots on target, the first after 58 minutes and the last when Leonardo Ulloa tapped in a dramatic late winner. Unable to break with alacrity and play on the counterattack, Leicester’s threat was nullified for long periods. There was no space for Jamie Vardy to exploit behind the Norwich defence, which was compounded by the fact that Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton failed to make the best use of the ball in wide areas, until the latter finally found his range with the cross that Ulloa converted in the 89th minute. The good news for Leicester is that they still managed to find a way to win the game, largely thanks to Ranieri’s tactical gamble late on. The bad news is that they could come up against these tactics again and will need to be more adept at finding a way through.
Stuart James