Leicester City: Jamie Vardy and Danny Drinkwater's conversations reveal the club's winning collectivism

The collective is more important than the individual at the King Power Stadium

Leonardo Ulloa, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel celebrate the win at Sunderland (Getty)

It was something Jamie Vardy revealed in the minutes after the latest victory which spoke volumes for 'The Leicester City Method' and gave the lie to the notion, gently propagated by Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce early on Sunday evening, that the side with the Premier League title are unsophisticated.

Vardy disclosed the contents of a conversation he’d had with Danny Drinkwater, as their side had laboured to make inroads into Allardyce’s men during the first half on Sunday. Between them, they’d spotted that one of Sunderland’s centre halves was continually advancing to join in the attack, while the other was not. (Younes Kaboul was the former; Lamine Kone the latter, though Vardy did not name names.)

They conferred beyond the cameras and the microphones agreeing, as Vardy put it, that “if you got the chance and you were on the last man and the ball was there to be played over the top…” It was 20 minutes into the second half that Drinkwater made good on their plan, to match-winning effect.

What Leicester lack in resources and six-figure weekly wages they make up for in little conversations like this. They are a collective who understand each other’s abilities intimately and, because a core of players have spent a five or ten years making their way in the game, are capable of doing their thinking on the field, spontaneously, rather than relying on a manager. Drinkwater and Vardy both say they don’t need to look for where the other is or where he is going to place the ball.

“The majority of times you don’t need to look,” Drinkwater says of Vardy. “You just know he is going to be on the move. You try and utilise the best players you’ve got on the pitch and know what can cause other players damage. Vardy’s perspective on this is that Drinkwater “knows exactly where I am going to be. He doesn’t have to look most of the time. As long as I know the rough area of where it is going to go, I’ll be on my bike and chasing the ball down.”

Though Vardy’s Leicester story is to be committed to screen by Hollywood scriptwriter Adam Butchart – “He’s hoping for a fairytale ending so let’s hope it goes that way,” the player says – there is a socialist ethos about this team. To hear them discuss their method is to be reminded of certain aspects of that Liverpool team of the 1970s and 1980s. The collective was always more important than the individual in that side, which was not populated by world superstars. The squad was so small that its members played to a teammate’s strengths, rather than weaknesses. And they, like Leicester, displayed endless patience. They so often scored late.

Vardy wheels away after scoring at the Stadium of Light (Getty)

Some of the assets they’ve discovered about each other are evidently a source of huge hilarity. Centre half Robert Huth’s pace, for example. “In the warm up there are sprint contests around different mannequins,” Vardy explained. “And Huthy for some reason has ended up in the top group. I don’t know how. If he gets turned round the mannequins first and puts his arm out then that’s it, you’re not going to get past him. So we are always having a laugh and a joke about it. That is how we are, everyone is relaxed. The gaffer wants it to be like that….”

The league table of assists also forms part of the weekly humour. Vardy quite fancies himself as a supplier as well as a finisher, now. The Leicester team bus had not yet left the Stadium of Light before full-back Danny Simpson was taking some stick for not failing to finish a chance the striker had laid on.

“Danny has killed me there,” Vardy said, deadpan. “From the angle I’ve crossed it I thought the 'keeper made a terrific save but we’ve seen it back and I think Simmo was trying to pass it to him. We have had a few cheeky digs at each other over that. Daniel Amartey has cost me one as well today! He’s gone through on goal and decided to kick it straight at the 'keeper. That is the good thing, we have come away with a win and we can have a little laugh and joke about things like that….”

Ranieri offers instruction from the touchline during Sunday's win (Getty)

The talk has been of Vardy’s goals - 21 in the Premier League now – but it has been a part of Leicester’s new way that he has purposefully worked on the assists. “You have to have your head up all the time. If someone else is in a better position than you, then you will pass it to them. That’s exactly what I’ll keep doing and hopefully we’ll keep picking up points.”

And then there is the defensive record: the most widely overlooked part of 'The Leicester Method' which deconstructs the idea that they are only about counter-attacking long balls. “[The defence] probably don’t get as much credit as they should,” said Drinkwater, reeling off the terms of endearment for Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Wes Morgan, Huth and Christian Fuchs. “It starts with Kasper, then Simmo, Wes, Huthy, Chrissy, then you’ve got me and NG [N’Golo Kante]. All of 11 of us, we work our socks off to not concede goals. I think that is 6 out of 7 clean sheets [now].”

Collectivism cannot, of itself, deliver success. The self-belief that winning has engendered is the most significant aspect of 'The Leicester Method'. A member of Roy Hodgson’s staff privately observes that Vardy would not have attempted the instep click against Germany in Berlin two weeks ago if he had not been part of this Leicester team.

They’ll all try to tell you that it’s ridiculously simple. “There isn’t a secret. It’s just that we are a bunch of lads that get along,” is the Drinkwater conclusion. It’s about six months since Leicester’s tactical strategy was first being discussed publicly and pulled apart, though. And the rest are still no closer to finding a way of cracking it.