da leao： This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
da betano casino： Crystal Palace welcome Leicester to Selhurst Park on Sunday, in what will be the Foxes’ first Premier League outing since they thrashed Southampton 9-0 last Friday.
In doing so, Brendan Rodgers’s side equalled the 24-year record for the largest Premier League win set by Manchester United in 1995. It goes without saying that Leicester have a number of excellent players such as Jamie Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison, so the Eagles really need to be switched on this Sunday.
Aside from those three star players, Roy Hodgson has other danger men to think about, which should prompt a savvy tactical move from the 72-year-old.
Who would they be?
Looking at Leicester’s squad on paper, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that their right flank is a particularly dangerous one.
It is an area of the pitch that consists of Ricardo Pereira and Ayoze Perez. The former enjoyed a stunning 2018/19 campaign in which he scored twice and recorded six assists following a £22m move from Porto, and has taken that form into the current season with two goals in ten appearances.
In Perez’s case, the £30m Spaniard netted 12 goals in 37 Premier League appearances last term, and scored a hat-trick last time out against the Saints.
What should Hodgson do?
Luckily for the former England manager, he has two left-sided players in his squad who compliment each other well.
We previously outlined that Patrick van Aanholt plays his best football and looks most comfortable with Jeffrey Schlupp ahead of him on the left of midfield – the versatile Ghanaian can play at left-back, left-midfield or left-wing.
Van Aanholt – formerly of Chelsea and Sunderland – can often be defensively vulnerable as two of his former coaches in Sam Allardyce and Gus Poyet detailed, so the added help from Schlupp would certainly be beneficial to him.
Schlupp brings real physicality and discipline to the more advanced roles, having spent portions of his career as a defender, and with that in mind seems like the perfect candidate to nullify Pereira’s forward runs. The Portuguese can overlap or drift inside – as he did to net against both Spurs and Newcastle – so he needs to be tracked closely.
Pereira and Perez have the potential to run riot down the right on Sunday – Hodgson would be wise to bring Schlupp back into the XI so that he and van Aanholt can team up to contend with the Leicester duo’s threat.