Why Dewsbury-Hall played at wing-back

BRENDAN Rodgers chose to play Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as a leftsided wing-back because he wanted to experiment with a more attackminded option than Luke Thomas, writes Jordan Blackwell.

Dewsbury-Hall was a surprise pick on the left flank as Rodgers made six changes to his Leicester City side for the defeat to Everton on Sunday.

James Justin and Ricardo Pereira were both unavailable through injury, but Rodgers eschewed the obvious choice in Thomas to see how a fellow academy graduate fared.

Rodgers believed that Dewsbury-Hall had the attributes to take on the role, but could also provide more attacking thrust than Thomas does.

It also allowed him to introduce another forwardthinking player to the midfield trio, with Ayoze Perez coming into a role that perhaps would have been occupied by James Maddison had he been fit.

The experiment only lasted one half, with Harvey Barnes brought on for Perez at the interval as City chased an equaliser.

Dewsbury-Hall, right, then shuffled back inside.

Asked why he picked the 23-year-old midfielder at leftwing-back, Rodgers said: “Just to put an extra attacker in, in Ayo, and with Kiernan coming in to play in that role to have a look and experiment with.

“Because if we ever needed to play in a different system in a different way, it was just to see him in that role.

“He can get up the pitch and can be more aggressive. Luke’s a young player who serves more behind the game. So it was for an attacking reason to play him there, and also to play Ayo.

“The second half, we changed it. We had lots of attacking players on the pitch, bringing a winger on and moving him (Dewsbury-Hall) inside.

“We had enough of the ball in those areas but just failed to create.”

Rodgers also said his team selection was in part due to the deficiencies at set-pieces. Switching to a back three allowed for an extra centreback to come in, adding more height at corners, albeit City conceded from the only one Everton had.

The back-three formation, which also allows City to play with a pair of strikers, has been seen more regularly in recent weeks.