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Claudio Ranieri: Five ways he's changed things at Leicester City

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 15:  Riyad Mahrez of Leicester City celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Wes

Leicester City's 1-1 draw with Manchester United means they are only kept off top spot by goal difference as their astonishing start to the season continues.

The accepted wisdom is that Claudio Ranieri's greatest virtue is that he hasn't been in a rush to change things after Leicester finished last season in such good form.

However, that view can lead to a reluctance to acknowledge some of the alterations that the Italian has made since his arrival in the summer.

Here we pick out some of the decisions that Ranieri has made that have paid off for the Foxes this season…

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Ranieri praised Jamie Vardy after his record-breaking goal on Saturday

Vardy in the centre

Vardy's success has been one of the stories of the Premier League season so far and he even broke a Premier League record against United by scoring in an 11th consecutive game. Much of the focus has been on where the striker was five years ago. And yet, it's worth remembering that it's a transformation even from last season.

Vardy's role has changed significantly since then. The two wins that helped turn Leicester's season around under Nigel Pearson were the back-to-back late victories over West Ham and West Brom in April. In both of those matches, Vardy was used in a predominantly left-sided role playing off Leonardo Ulloa and David Nugent.

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Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri congratulates Jamie Vardy during the game at Newcastle
Image: Vardy has been unleashed by Ranieri to great effect this season

From the start of the campaign, Ranieri recognised that his team's pace in attack was a key strength that needed to be nurtured. He has embraced the power of the counter-attack. Vardy was named among the substitutes in eight Premier League games last season but has started every one under Ranieri. He is central to his plans in more ways than one.

Inverted wingers

The performances of Riyad Mahrez have arguably been more electrifying than Vardy with the Algerian completing more dribbles than anyone else in the Premier League this season. Indeed, according to Opta, only Mesut Ozil has created more clear-cut chances.

Premier League 2015/16 - Completed Dribbles

Player Club Total
Riyad Mahrez Leicester City 48
Wilfried Zaha Crystal Palace 46
Eden Hazard Chelsea 44
Alexis Sanchez Arsenal 44

Finding a way to get Mahrez involved was a challenge for Pearson last season. He was an unused substitute in the 5-3 win over Manchester United in the autumn and played only a bit-part role in the team's turnaround in the spring.

He was substituted 45 minutes into the breakthrough win over West Ham, played 26 minutes against West Brom, 22 minutes in the 2-0 win over Swansea and was left on the bench for the 1-0 win at Burnley that made it four in a row for Pearson's team.

Mahrez subsequently showed what he could do in the final few games of last season and continued that form under Ranieri. The Italian has used him on the right wing of a four-man midfield to great effect, but it's perhaps the use of Marc Albrighton on the left that's been particularly interesting.

Leicester's Marc Albrighton (R) makes it 4-1 to the Foxes against Sunderland
Image: Marc Albrighton has been transformed into a left winger this season

Albrighton has already started more games this season than in his debut year with the Foxes and had rarely been used as an inverted winger previously in his career. But Ranieri recognised that playing with two inverted wingers was an effective way of fielding his favoured 4-4-2 formation.

Four at the back

Despite this prevailing feeling that Leicester's form is a mere continuation of what happened late last season, it was the switch to a back-three that played a big part in that initial turnaround. They made the change for the 2-0 home win over Swansea in April and stuck with it for much of the run-in.

If Ranieri's modus operandi was to replicate the efforts of Pearson's side then he would surely have kept the same formation that brought much of their success in the sequence of seven wins from nine games that propelled the team to safety.

Claudio Ranieri treats his Leicester players Danny Simpson, Nathan Dyer, Mark Schwarzer and Marc Albrighton to pizza as a reward for keeping a clean sheet
Image: Ranieri rewarded his players with a pizza for their first clean sheet of the season

Instead, he reverted to a back-four with Wes Morgan and Robert Huth forming a strong partnership in the centre of defence. That's the system he has preferred for long period of his career and while the team had to wait for its first clean sheet - and the reward of a pizza - it has provided a platform for their success.

Moving on from Cambiasso

Part of the reason why Pearson went with three at the back was because it allowed him to get the best from Esteban Cambiasso. The Argentine midfielder was a huge fan-favourite for Leicester last season and the temptation would have been to go in search of a like-for-like replacement.

Ranieri saw it differently and has gone for energy as a priority in midfield as he wanted to go with just two players in the centre of the park. Danny Drinkwater was on the bench more times than he started last season but is an ever-present under Ranieri. The coach deserves credit for his fine form.

Danny Drinkwater of Leicester City during the Premier League match with Crystal Palace
Image: Danny Drinkwater has emerged as a key player for Ranieri's Leicester

"He has always been a big talent but perhaps lacked a little bit of focus," said Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville of Drinkwater, a former colleague at Manchester United. There can be no doubting his focus this season with the midfielder ranking among the top 10 in the country for distance covered.

Signing of Kante

Ranieri has paired him with new signing N'Golo Kante, a fellow hard-worker rather than a conventional playmaker. "He's the one big change Ranieri has made and he has had a major impact," Jamie Carragher told Saturday Night Football, and the statistics support that view.

Premier League 2015/16 - Interceptions

Player Club Total
N'Golo Kante Leicester City 60
Yohan Cabaye Crystal Palace 54
Laurent Koscielny Arsenal 46

Kante has made more interceptions than any other player in the Premier League this season and ranks third for tackles. Where Cambiasso brought control, Kante brings a form of organised chaos, denying the opposition time on the ball. It's precisely what Ranieri had planned.

"Last season, he was the first player in the five top leagues in Europe for ball recoveries," said the Leicester boss recently. "He presses the ball non-stop. I think he even presses people in the stands." It's this work of Kante and Drinkwater that allows Mahrez to break with such freedom.

Conclusion

Ranieri has not brought in a dozen new players and frozen out the heroes of last season. Nor is he claiming to have invented total football, gegenpressing or tiki-taka. But to downplay his role in the change of fortunes enjoyed by Leicester this season would be to do him a disservice.

Vardy's record run
Vardy's record run

The 11 games that saw Jamie Vardy break a Premier League goalscoring record.

This is a success story that feels like a natural evolution of a team. However, that's a feeling that's been facilitated by numerous tweaks to the formation and a coach ensuring that those alterations all come together to bring the best out of the individual parts.

In short, the Tinkerman has tinkered. A dozen years ago, those changes were seen as his calling card and the term became pejorative. Now, he's done it so well that the public have barely even noticed. As a result, Ranieri might not get the credit he deserves for a job quite brilliantly done.

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