Leicester City: new force, old tricks

A certain calculation amuses the club’s shrewd, but grounded, commercial brains: by September, Leicester will have spent more on providing clappers for fans to sound at home games — it costs £12,500 a match and the ritual started last April — than they paid for Riyad Mahrez.

The clappers, which Premier League rivals have tried and failed to copy, are one of those things that demonstrate the club’s unique relationship with the fans. The owners’ generosity underpins much. Since arriving in 2010 the Srivaddhanaprabha family have made sincere gestures for which they seek no publicity, such as laying on gammon baps as breakfast for supporters travelling by coach to far-off matches, or issuing food vouchers for them to spend at away stadiums.

Today, the fans are getting free T-shirts. In an age when big clubs seek to suck cash from their following at every opportunity, this feels as different as what is happening on the pitch. There is still, even now, an “are Leicester really...?” feel to this season. They do not look like champions, in terms of our preconceptions. Yet look closer. As much as there are differences between them and previous Premier League winners, so there are similarities.

Some are glaring. You can see Leicester in Manchester United’s Treble winners, Arsenal’s Invincibles and — particularly when you add tactics — Chelsea in Jose Mourinho’s first spell. To think only of fairytales and not recognise this about Claudio Ranieri and his players is to do them a great disservice.

The players, who would freely admit it, do not have the ability, not nearly, of United 1999, Arsenal 2004 or Chelsea 2005-6. But they have the dynamics. Leicester have phenomenally strong bonds in the dressing room, and an unnaturally strong mentality. They play what Claudio Ranieri calls “mondiale football” — meaning they have the ability, at all times, to attack and defend as a team.

They have been constructed, as a squad, with attention paid not to individual reputations but to how players fit together and fit a way of playing.

Roman Abramovich would have bought any striker in the world for Mourinho but he wanted Didier Drogba ,who was not, at the time, the biggest name but someone who exactly suited the team he was building.

Sir Alex Ferguson recruited Dwight Yorke in a similar manner and had Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Wes Brown making contributions, rather than stars everywhere you looked. Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles’ defence included £150,000 Kolo Toure and the functional Lauren.

These sides were highly stable, in terms of game plan, formation and selection. Their absolute essence was a refusal to be beaten and it was not always pretty: United drew 24 games during 1998-99, Arsenal almost a third of their league games in 2003-4 and Mourinho’s Chelsea knew all about grittily-acquired clean sheets.

Ferguson has voiced his approval, raving about Leicester last month. Ray Parlour, an Arsenal Invincible, said: “Leicester have five or six of those characters. They all stick together. If they have to defend, they all defend. Everyone working hard. That’s the perfect character if you want to win the league.

“Nobody remembers beating Norwich only 1-0. They remember you winning the league. Those games — just go out and win them. It’s like the Invincible season. We played poorly in several games, but when we needed something someone would score out of the blue, make a save, a block, and other teams would walk off saying, ‘How did we not beat Arsenal?’ And Leicester have been like that. It’s brilliant to watch.”

Leicester cannot play the pulverising football of those teams. And their possession count is spectacularly lower than previous title winners. Yet their weapons of scoring, fast transitions and lightning counterattacks are the bread and butter of successful English club sides.

So many United goals under Ferguson came on the break, and countering via the pace of Thierry Henry (and before him Nicolas Anelka and Marc Overmars) was vital to Wenger’s old design.

But Leicester are closest, tactically, to Mourinho’s Chelsea. Mourinho loved his team to wait in a “low block”, then get up the pitch quickly through routines drilled on the training ground, a system rooted in Italian coaching. Ranieri, behind the uncle’s smile and parson’s demeanour, is a hardened Italian coach.

Jamie Vardy has been magnificent but the team’s seamless switch to Jeffrey Schlupp as their outlet, against Swansea, proved the endurance of the design at play.

So they would be unfamiliar and yet familiar champions. Like Ranieri. His success demands a reappraisal of that “nearly man” tag. His Chelsea, second to those great Invincibles (and beating them in Europe). His Fiorentina and Roma, pushing European-champion, Serie A rivals close. His Monaco, on the heels of mega-rich Paris Saint-Germain. He is a serial overachiever, not underachiever.

No one-dimensional team can ever win a championship played over nine or 10 months. Despite spending less time with the ball than all but two sides in the Premier League, Leicester have Danny Drinkwater, who has made the 10th most individual passes in the competition, and Mahrez, its second most prolific dribbler.

And in games when opponents have tried to turn the tables and play lurk-then-break against them, Leicester have proved perfectly able, beating Sunderland with 55% and Norwich with 58% possession, way above their 43% average. When Leonardo Ulloa replaces Vardy, as he will at Old Trafford today, the side are flexible and intelligent enough to play to a different set of strengths.

Vardy has been their arrowhead, Mahrez their talisman, Drinkwater their brain and Robert Huth, Wes Morgan and Kasper Schmeichel their bedrock but I agree with Ferguson; N’Golo Kante is the team’s most outstanding player and if you are looking for differences between Leicester this season and last season, it is worth reflecting that Kante was the summer addition.

A remarkable fusion of ball-retriever and ball-carrier, Kante by far leads the league for tackles and has had just three yellow cards, so quick, clean and well timed are his interventions. And Cinderella stories? He tops them all, having started in the French eighth division.

There is a consensus that the Premier League has never had greater strength in depth. That being the case, Leicester’s extended form — 98 points from their past 44 games — is a truly heavyweight achievement. Yes, as Ranieri said, “Once in life it could happen. This is football. Every 50 years a little team with less money beats the biggest. Once.” Yes, this season is special but, no, Leicester are no anomaly. An unfamiliar contender has conjured up the familiar traits of champions. Oh happy day.

•Jonathan Northcroft will be discussing Leicester’s season in The Sunday Supplement on Sky Sports 1, 9.30am

INCREDIBLE RISE OF THE FANTASTIC FOXES

Kasper Schmeichel After becoming surplus at Manchester City he rebuilt his career in League Two and, at 29, has still played more games in England’s bottom tier than its top one

Danny Simpson Ditched by QPR and his boyhood club, Manchester United, let him go after four starts. After off-field problems, he is now one of the Premier League’s most consistent right-backs

Wes Morgan Released at 15 by Notts County, he grafted his way back into the professional game via an initial stint in the Central Midlands League. Didn’t taste the Premier League until 30

Robert Huth Went to Leicester on loan on deadline day in the 2015 January transfer window after being dropped to the Stoke bench. Partnership with Morgan in defence began during last season’s dash to safety and Leicester haven’t looked back

Christian Fuchs His wife, son and stepson live in New York and Fuchs plans to move there in 2018 to try and become an NFL kicker

Danny Drinkwater Like Simpson, deemed not good enough at Old Trafford and underwent a series of loan spells in the Championship before securing a permanent deal with Leicester. Now an international and man of the match on his England debut

N’Golo Kante Five years ago ‘NG’ was playing in the French eighth division and hadn’t played top-flight football anywhere until joining Leicester. Sir Alex Ferguson thinks him the best player in the Premier League ‘by a long way’

Marc Albrighton Released by Aston Villa in 2014 and has overcome personal tragedy – his mother-in-law was killed in last year’s Tunisian terror attacks — to emerge as a crucial component for Claudio Ranieri

Riyad Mahrez Players’ player of the year, who cost just £400,000. Started a notch higher than Kante, in the French seventh tier, and like his close friend grew up in a deprived part of Paris

Shinji Okazaki Another who came to the Premier League late, having done well at middling Bundesliga clubs Stuttgart and Mainz. His run of starts began when paired with Jamie Vardy in November’s rousing home draw against Man Utd

Leonardo Ulloa Began in the Argentine lower leagues and spent four seasons in Spain’s second tier and then two in the English Championship. Now blossoming at 29, the Patagonian’s contribution in Vardy’s absence could prove pivotal

Jeffrey Schlupp Rejected by Manchester United following a 2013 trial and has played in several positions for Leicester without tying down one. Yet his versatility has emerged as a strength

Jamie Vardy Released by Sheffield Wednesday, he worked in a factory making medical splints then made his way through the non-league game with stints at Stocksbridge Steels, Halifax and Fleetwood. Now an England star in a £168,000 Bentley

Andy King After failing to win a professional contract with Chelsea, he went to Leicester as a 15- year-old. Stands to become the first player to win League One, the Championship and Premier League

ON TV TODAY
Manchester United v Leicester City
Sky Sports 1, 2.05pm