Leicester City vs Southampton: A tactical and statistical analysis

By Marc Walker | Jan 17, 2021

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 16: Jan Bednarek of Southampton clears the ball from the line following a shot from Harvey Barnes of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Southampton at The King Power Stadium on January 16, 2021 in Leicester, England. Sporting stadiums around England remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in games being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images) /

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Leicester City’s Northern Irish manager Brendan Rodgers (L) speaks with Southampton’s Austrian manager Ralph Hasenhuttl (R) (Photo by RUI VIEIRA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /

Saints enjoy possession but do less with it

Saints enjoyed over half of the possession of the ball in their trip to Leicester on Saturday evening. Their first-half performance in particular was controlled and saw multiple dangerous attacks created.

Although they were able to make 486 passes in comparison to Leicester’s 443, just six were defined by whoscored.com as key passes – a pass that led directly to a shot at goal.

Leicester made 13 throughout the 90 minutes and four more from inside the penalty area than Saints, showing that they were able to create more with less of the ball.

Despite the recent win against Liverpool, Saints are going through a barren spell from an attacking point of view. Danny Ings’ winning goal against the Reds was their only goal in their last five league games.

A mixture of teams working out how to defend against them and some crucial players being out may play a part in this, but new attacking patterns must be worked on to find more creativity once again.

(Stats via whoscored.com)