When it comes to the analysis of cup finals, there’s a tendency to treat the result as sacrosanct and work backwards from there.
Amid the jubilation of the winners’ celebrations, especially in front of the biggest crowd at an English football match for over a year, it’s difficult to take a step back and question the performance. Leicester were winners, and popular winners, but not necessarily deserved winners.
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Brendan Rodgers’ side did little right at Wembley yesterday.
They started nervily, their passing was sloppy when under pressure and sluggish when not under pressure. Up front, Kelechi Iheanacho’s first touch was consistently poor and Jamie Vardy was largely nullified by Reece James. Without the ball, they left gaps between the lines, and when forced to defend deep late on, conjured up a comedic own goal only to be spared by a VAR offside decision. Granted, Chelsea were also far from their best.
But if the result wasn’t necessarily fitting, the two heroes were.
Leicester’s most consistent performers this season have been goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who made an outstanding reaction stop from Mason Mount, and midfielder Youri Tielemans, who scored one of the all-time great FA Cup final goals.
OOHHH YOURI TIELEMANS! 🔥
One of the great #EmiratesFACupFinal goals!
Such a sweet strike into the top corner, and just listen to that roar 😍 pic.twitter.com/QZtg7C4jMe
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 15, 2021
Leicester are regarded as one of the Premier League’s most advanced clubs in terms of their use of data and analysis; when they beat Chelsea in the Premier League in January, James Maddison credited one of the club’s analysts for encouraging him to get into the right position.
That analyst would probably have advised against Tielemans shooting from that position at Wembley; attempts from more than 30 yards out have a one per cent success rate in the Premier League this season. Then again, Tielemans wouldn’t be at the club without Leicester’s impressive scouting and analysis department.
This FA Cup victory will, in the history of Leicester City, perhaps be considered the second part of a double bill, along with their league title victory five years ago. The club had never won either trophy beforehand, and this is therefore unquestionably the most successful period in their history.
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Only two players in yesterday’s starting XI, though, Schmeichel and Vardy, were around for the league title success. Two more, Marc Albrighton and Wes Morgan, came off the bench. We take it for granted that Leicester used their title victory as a springboard to becoming one of the big boys on a full-time basis — but even considering the Premier League prize money, the subsequent Champions League revenue and perhaps a greater level of belief at the club, there was no guarantee 2015-16 would be anything other than a one-off.
They finished 12th, ninth and ninth in the three seasons after their title success. Now, they will finish in the top five for a second season running, something Arsenal can only dream of, and have won silverware, something that continues to elude Tottenham. The “Big Six” term still applies in terms of revenue, but no longer makes sporting sense.
Tielemans is the best example of Leicester’s shift.
Previously, the club’s success in the transfer market was making obscure signings — Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante — for relative peanuts. Tielemans was very different, a renowned player touted as one of Europe’s brightest young talents, who found that Monaco wasn’t the right place for his development. Leicester initially took him on loan in January 2019, and after his fine displays during that spell, found themselves facing competition for his signature. The decision to shell out £40 million, a club record by a margin of £10 million at the time, brings more pressure than signing an unknown.
The decision has paid off, and this has been Tielemans’ finest campaign yet. Only countryman Kevin De Bruyne can rival Tielemans’ dominance of the right-sided midfield position, and it’s notable that Rodgers has, in recent weeks including at Wembley, often deployed Ayoze Perez or Maddison on the left of a midfield three, rather than as a No 10, to use a 4-3-3 and allow Tielemans to push forward down the right.
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From that zone, he can send brilliant through-balls in behind, as he did this season for both assists in a 2-0 victory over Southampton in January. He can dribble through the heart of the opposition’s defence, as he did for a fine goal against Arsenal the following month, or he can push forward to cross, as he did for Luke Thomas’s outstanding volleyed opener in the defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier in the week.
And then there’s his long-range shooting ability. The Belgian scored twice from outside the box in January, but nothing, of course, as special as this. “It was like an old-school FA Cup-winning goal,” said Rodgers. “But also Kasper Schmeichel’s save, those are the special moments you need in games.”
How has Kasper Schmeichel saved that?! 😱
World-class goalkeeping at such a critical time in the match!
Mason Mount couldn't believe it!#EmiratesFACupFinal pic.twitter.com/sgm2wg7X8M
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) May 15, 2021
And for all the emphasis upon goals and assists, and the increasing number of more detailed metrics that Leicester’s analysis team doubtless use, one remarkably simple statistic shows why these two are so valuable — appearances.
Between Tielemans’ Leicester debut in February 2019 and now, 792 players have appeared in the Premier League, and only one can beat his 86 appearances. That player? Schmeichel, with 87.
Sometimes those who provide the “special moments” in an FA Cup final, as Rodgers put it, are those you least expect, those who aren’t even in their side’s first-choice XI — Andy Linighan for Arsenal in 1993, Ben Watson for Wigan in 2013, Jesse Lingard for Manchester United three years later.
This, though, was very different. In years to come, when you think of this final, you’ll think of Tielemans’ goal, and Schmeichel’s save, and that will provide you with Leicester’s most dependable players over the last two and a half years, and their two star performers this season.
(Photo: Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
