Leicester City Were NOT Supposed to Win The Premier League

But they did.

In probably the most surprising season in English Premier League history, Leicester City won it all.

To say these lost were underdogs would be a massive understatement. So let's find out how it all came about. Right from the beginning.

Background music:

0:00 - Introduction
02:19 - Leicester Fosse: Long Road Ahead
04:39 - Ice Kings: no crown
06:12 - Rollercoaster
07:43 - Late Drama & Late Escapes
11:20 - Claudio Ranieri Arrives
13:51 - The winning Tactics and Setup
18:57 - Dilly Ding Dilly Dong: The 2015/16 Season
21:50 - Legacy

Producer: Tinashe Chipako
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[Yasinvanpersie]

The 2010s had quite a number of incredible underdog stories. Swansea winning the League Cup in 12/13. Bradford remarkably, were the runners up in that final. Wigan winning the FA Cup vs Man City that same season. Obviously Leicester with the league in 15/16

[matthewstevens]

For me the most underappreciated factor in Leicester’s title-winning season was their “throwback” style of tactics, reverting to moving the ball forward exceptionally quickly, forgetting about maintaining possession and moving back to 4-4-2.

You need to remember that back in 2015, 4-4-2 was almost seen as totally and utterly dead and redundant. Not only did no-one really play it any longer, no-one really prepared for it either.

The prevailing wisdom was twofold:

1) That the modern 4-3-3 was just *better* than 4-4-2; the reason being that a strong and powerful centre-forward could occupy both opposing central-defenders and thereby giving the central-midfield 3 an overload against the opponents 2.

2) Possession is, was and forever will be King. Maintaining possession of the ball was everything; attacking and defending was defined by who had the ball, and territory meant nothing.

Ranieri’s Leicester team completely flew in the face of all of this; and for those of you reading this who might be a bit too young to remember this in any detail, it really was something that opposing teams just simply *did not know* how to deal with. They didn’t know how to deal with a team who stood off you and just *didn’t care* about not being in possession. They didn’t know how to deal with the speed of the counter-attacks or how quick Leicester were to go back-to-front. They didn’t know how to deal with the opposing centre-forward being a player with electric pace from the central position rather than the wings.

You have to give tremendous credit to Ranieri. I’d even say his success with Leicester has had an element of influence on further success including what Klopp has had with Liverpool.

[timhinfort]

I was visiting my uncle around Christmas in 2015. I live in Germany and was 14 at the time. I always loved football but only ever watched the Bundesliga and the Champions League. My Uncle, a long time Chelsea fan, took me and my dad to a game against Leicester. I knew nothing about Leicester, but I cheared for them as a joke at first to get a reaction out of my uncle. But... when the game started and I saw this incredible team fight with everything they had, as if loosing would literally kill them, I fell in love. The Football, the passion, the athmosphere in their stadium... It was beautyfull. I followed the rest of the season and have been following/supporting Leicester City ever since even though I live in Germany. This Club is so special to me and I am extremely lucky to have whitnessed this miracle of a season thanks to what was largely a coincidence. I'll never forget that 2:1 result against Chelsea in my life. I'll never forget Jamie Vardys Celebration after scoring. This is a core memory for me.

[JKribbit]

Fun fact: Vichai was a huge Chelsea fan going to matches in the VIP box every time he had the chance. One game at Stamford Bridge, his family had entered the VIP section but Vichai was stopped by security whom almost hit him with a metal detector. Vichai was furious since the security refused to apologise. He then said to Aiyawat, his son, that he was going to buy another English club so that he can beat Chelsea one day. The rest is history.

[Oliviben]

The Leicester story always warms my heart. I will never forget this. Always new this was going to be a banger the second it dropped

[jitgo]

I'm a Leicester fan and just was in tears at the end of the season, could not believe it. What a season! Thanks for a great vid!

[ayushman]

Greatest footballing fairytale we have ever The way the team fought every matchday and the way they won will never be forgotten

[irish_mcrae]

This reminds me of a story I witnessed in where I'm living rn
A team called Cobresal were historically known to always fight to avoid relegation, and bounce between Primera División and Primera B, in Chile.
In 2015, disaster struck the region where the team is based, a big flood happened, but as Leicester, they just fought to it and won their first and only championship, and in an incredible final matchday, nobody expected them to win, they didn't even have preparations for them to lift the trophy
The story can be seen in a mini documentary called "El Milagro de Cobresal"

[harrybryan-dooher]

I grew up in Leicester, raised as a leicester fan for my whole life, the first game I went to was when we were in league 1, I can't remember how old, but anyways. I can't describe how much this meant to the city, to everyone. I'll carry this story with me for the rest of my life, and now I've got an incredible to show people how much it means to.

[jems]

For anyone who doubts how far team chemistry and passion can take you, remember Leicester’s story and your doubts be gone

[markbray]

I'm a Leicester City fan, I thought this was a really good video. I particularly appreciate the time taken looking at the history of the club, something that was largely ignored by the main stream media.

[TK_Brainslug]

as a Bayern Munich supporter all my life I also love me a great underdog story. Like when Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga as a freshly promoted team in 1998. Ah and before I forget great video as usual.

[gusvanskike]

My biggest regret as a football fan was that I didn't pay attention to this season. When this happened I (an American) was only 10-11 years old, and I wasn't paying much attention to soccer. As I've gotten older and have dove deeper into the soccer world, I look back on this season and wish I had been able to appreciate it more, becuase it is something that I don't think I'll ever see again.

[mamadynabe]

This man puts in the work every week. Road to 200k here we come!
I’d also like a video on how good were Javier Zanneti, Pavel Nedved, and Fabio Cannavaro really. And you’ve done videos on Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, and on his Real Madrid teams, so why not complete the trilogy and make a video about his Inter team that won the treble

[helixgaming-gamingvlogskin]

My step father is from Leicester, I am from NJ USA. I am a RedBulls fan and have taken Leicester city in as a second team. I understand I will probably never see another Prem championship but it’s a amazing story that I’m glad to call ours

[shahriarshafin]

I've been following this channel for some time, and I am so glad you finally made a video about Leicester! The ultimate underdogs, a team made of rejects and failures, with a coach who was just sacked from Greece National Team after 4 matches. Over 8 months, I was amazed as Vardy banged in goals and Kante literally ran the opponent to death. Everyone on that team was a key figure. Kasper the reliable goalie, Houth and Morgan at the back, Kante and Drinkwater controlled the mid while Mahrez and his smooth touches gave the ball to Vardy and he did the rest. Okazaki, Ulloa, King, Albrighton, Schlupp, I could go on and on. But the most surprising thing is, they didn't just drop off after one season. They reached the UCL quarter finals tye very next season, won the FA cup last year, and reached UECL semis this year. Leicester is probably the best run club in EPL right now, and hopefully will challenge the big boys week in week out very soon.

Love from probably the only fox from Dhaka, Bangladesh.❤️

[MatthewDias]

2015/16 really was a strange time
Leicester won the PL and Portugal won the Euro.
Great time to be a fan.

[MrReese]

17:22 I believe you missed a quite "obvious" one here. Fuchs is Austrian so his name is German, and in German "Fuchs" actually means "fox", which is, of course, absolutely perfect considering the team he was playing for!

Regarding "an off-year" - this is, maybe on purpose, misinterpreted by you. The big clubs had an off-year, all of them, which is very rare and which is why we don't see this kind of stuff happening a lot. But of course even when the big clubs have an off-year some club must have a very good year to actually be able to capitalize on it, which Leicester did in amazing fashion.

btw, it would have been good to also talk about their CL campaign in the following season, which was quite good as well.

[kakuite]

Leicester were the rebuild done in real-life. From 3rd division to consistent European football. Brentford is doing the same as well. They're doing very smart acquisition and doing well in Prem. It'll be hard to win the League with all the "big teams" but it feels good to see clubs being at place they deserve by thier hard work

[sarupyamangal]

Can u do a video on Kaiserslautern? They were probably the only team in the modern era to win the league title after just coming back from relegation and it was a nice revenge story for their coach Otto Rehhagel who was sacked by Bayern.