Jamie Vardy’s standing as a Leicester player can’t be questioned.
Not only did the forward lead the club to the Premier League title in 2015/16, he remains their top scorer with nine goals this season and 127 over eight seasons in the English top flight.
Nonetheless, the time is right for the Foxes to look ahead to a future without Vardy.
Sunday’s home fixture against Newcastle provided a glimpse of that future and it was brighter than many at the King Power Stadium surely feared.
In fact, Vardy-less Leicester were dominant as they put four unanswered goals past their opponents all while their 34-year-old talisman watched from the bench.
The Foxes have struggled for balance and structure this season, but it was there in this display. The midfield platform of Wilfred Ndidi and Youri Tielemans worked with the latter given the freedom to get forward in the knowledge that the former would be behind him to offer protection.
Tielemans won five of the eight tackles he attempted, completed four out of six long passes and registered three shots on goal as he marked his 100th Premier League game with an excellent all-round performance. The Belgian is very much the epitome of the modern midfielder in that he can do it all.
Kieran Dewsbury-Hall was handed only his second Premier League start of the season and acted as an effective link between the midfield and attack (most notably between the midfield and Harvey Barnes) with James Maddison, who now has four goals in his last six league games, producing a Man of the Match performance off the right that allowed him to drift inside to link up with teammates.
Barnes offered width and direct running on the left while summer signing Patson Daka gave the Foxes a focal point as well as an outlet in behind, something that kept Leicester’s patterns of play somewhat familiar with Vardy left on the bench.
This was an evolution of what Leicester have become under Brendan Rodgers.
Newcastle had 53% of possession and even managed more passes in the opposition half (174 to 163) than Leicester, but the hosts controlled the match through good positional discipline and a mid-block that made it difficult for the relegation-threatened visitors to threaten Kasper Schmeichel (nobody made more combined interceptions/tackles than Tielemans - seven).
Much has been made of Leicester's defensive issues this season, and with good reason.
Not since the opening day of the season had Rodgers’ side kept a clean sheet in a Premier League match, but by pushing Maddison into a more central area Leicester not only afforded one of their most naturally talented players more influence, they put more bodies between the opposition and Schmeichel’s goal.
Maddison’s heat map illustrates how deep he operated for much of the win over Newcastle while Barnes’ proves how Rodgers asked him to stay high to provide an outlet to relieve pressure and start counter attacks.
Of course, they will play better teams than Newcastle between now and the end of the season, but this win could serve as a template.
“We have an unbelievable striker in Jamie Vardy, but he is human so we have to look after him,” Rodgers reasoned afterwards, suggesting that Vardy will be rotated back into the lineup soon enough. “Patson Daka is very important for us. He is a great goalscorer and he showed that.”
Daka has now been directly involved in five Premier League goals this season (two goals and three assists), despite only making two starts.
If Rodgers now views the Zambian as his first-choice centre forward, the Leicester team around him will have to adapt and on the basis of Sunday’s game that process has already started.
As for Newcastle, they have yet to make the necessary adaptations needed to avoid relegation. The Magpies now have the worst defensive record (34 goals conceded) in the Premier League with a numbers of individual errors compounding the struggles they had converting possession into goalscoring opportunities further forward.
Eddie Howe was hired to stop the rot, but Newcastle have now conceded 10 goals in his five games since his appointment. The St James’ Park club might now need to rely on the January transfer window to turn around their fortunes while Leicester City are finding different options within the squad they already have.