9 things we learned from Leicester City’s pre-season campaign
In the first part of our preview of the new Championship season, James Knight picks out 9 things we learned from a curious Leicester summer.
A lot of the summer is noise. Transfer rumours that never come to pass, B-teams playing each other thousands of miles from home, glorified training sessions in 40 degree heat.
But there are some golden nuggets of info amongst it all. A year ago, the signs of Leicester’s destruction were there well before the big kick-off: conceding slapstick set piece goals to National League outfits, conceding after 25 seconds to our feeder team, losing a key player to injury in the showpiece friendly for the second season in a row.
So with the 2023 pre-season campaign in the books, let’s take a look at what we’ve learned from it:
1. Ricardo is a midfielder now
If you missed Leicester’s entire pre-season campaign then a) whew boy did you miss out and b) strap in for your first look at a bold (bald?) new era. Ricardo Pereira, who you may remember as a right back who’s barely played in two years, has been transformed into an auxiliary midfielder and the key cog in the Enzo Machine.
Ricardo and new signing Harry Winks are the heartbeat of Maresca’s master plan. Together in midfield they have allowed Leicester to dominate the likes of, er…Northampton and, briefly, Liverpool with a new style of play that’s like a firmware upgrade on the bad old days of Brendanball.
Be prepared for some tikeh taka from that central midfield pairing, as well as some potentially disastrous gaps in behind them when it doesn’t go quite to plan.
2. Meet the new Danish #1, very different to the old Danish #1
The second phase of the upgrade has left poor old Daniel Iversen staring at a one-way ticket to Stoke. Not content with four first team goalkeepers, Leicester added a fifth in the form of Mads Hermansen. While there was some initial talk that there would be a battle for the number one shirt between the two Danish friends, it’s pretty clear that the job is Hermansen’s.
The Madsman was immediately handed starting duties once he joined, while Iversen had sat behind Jakub Stolarczyk in the pecking order for the first couple of friendlies. Iversen’s lack of ability on the ball has cost him any chance of competing for the role.
The early signs on Hermansen have been entertaining, to say the least. He’s a far cry from the years of watching goalkeepers chip the ball out for a throw. Goalkeepers with supreme self-confidence on the ball can go one of two ways. Tune in to find out which one it is!
3. Harry’s OUTtar the picture
In the first analyses of the Leicester squad after relegation, there were two players we all agreed would be a part of the bid to get back to the big time. One was Iversen, while the other was a man who, in the words of a prominent Leicester analyst, was set to be the key, ‘a giant who should prove invaluable in the Championship’.
Right now the Leicester hive mind is staring at an 0 for 2 start. Harry Souttar did indeed look certain to step up, back at a level he’d excelled at before, once we’d cleared the decks of all the overpaid wastrels masquerading as competition for his centre back spot.
But someone forgot to post Enzo the memo. Souttar raced back from Australia duty for the first day of pre-season and all he got in return was about 45 minutes away at Port FC. On Sunday, where you might have expected to see Big Soutts directing his troops at the back, you’re going to find - and please sit down for this bit - Jannik Vestergaard instead.
4. Seagrave is still cursed
One of the reasons for Vesty’s unexpected resurgence is a big, Conor Coady-sized gap in the centre of defence. The first of Leicester’s summer signings made all the right noises when he arrived and inked himself in as the people’s choice as captain. He shouted and roared his way through the first friendly at Sixfields. And then Seagrave struck.
During a behind-closed-doors corporate engagement - a description which, in pure 2023 Leicester style, could apply to more than one game this summer - against OH Leuven at Seagrave, disaster struck. Coady went off with an unspecified foot injury and missed the tour to Asia. Maresca has since described it as “not good”, to set the stage for his first press conference injury news dump heading into the Coventry game.
Ricardo - Faes - Coady - Doyle, with Ricardo moving into midfield and Doyle dropping in as the third centre back, looked to be Maresca’s preferred back four. Without Coady, Faes and Doyle were due to play the washout against Spurs. Since then, Vestergaard has loomed out of the darkness and back into the team. He started alongside Ben Nelson against the sailor boys of Port FC, then played the full 90 minutes with Doyle against Liverpool.
5. Don’t go to Thailand during monsoon season
At this point, you may reasonably be wondering “who are Thai League 1 outfit Port FC and why did Leicester City play them in Bangkok ten days before the start of the Championship season?”
Well, we were actually meant to be travelling all the way to Asia two weeks before the Championship season to play Tottenham in Thailand, but the game was washed out after a torrential downpour. This rainstorm was so unpredictable the Met Office has an entire page dedicated to it.
Leicester had only scheduled three ‘proper’ friendlies to begin with, so this abandonment led to a hastily arranged replacement game a few days later against Port. That matchup was played behind-closed-doors, to the intense disappointment of the vast army of Leicester fans in Thailand, many of whom had only recently been converted to the cause after seeing a vision of Gerry Taggart signing a shirt for some local kids.
6. Do go to Thailand if you want a free football
Taggart or, to give him his full name, LCFC Legend Gerry Taggart, has been one of the stars of the summer. In lieu of quite as many signings as we would like and in the absence of many actual games to watch because everything has been hidden away from the prying eyes of people who support the club, he has taken centre stage.
Taggart, along with Matt Elliott, Emile Heskey, and Wes Morgan, have been given the full celeb treatment by the official website and social channels throughout a propaganda expedition to Southeast Asia. “Leicester City Legends Delight Bangkok Locals With Community Projects”, “Memories Made At Supporter Q&A In Thai Capital”. “Foxes Journey History Exhibition Thrills Bangkok Locals”,
You’ll never sing that.
7. The old guard are still the current guard…for now
In amongst the breathless coverage of King Power’s Thai Power pledge, there has been one type of news noticeably absent: sales. Only James Maddison and Harvey Barnes have followed the Contract Seven out of the door.
Timothy Castagne, despite his best efforts, remains, and has been a key figure throughout pre-season. So too has the aforementioned Vestergaard, along with Wilfred Ndidi and Dennis Praet. Kelechi Iheanacho is still here, too, and still can’t get in the starting XI. Even Boubakary Soumare hasn’t gone.
What it amounts to is a Leicester team that’s not that different to the one you remember just yet. Many of the players are the same, even if they are in different roles. Castagne has spent most of his time as an out and out right winger, Praet and Ndidi are playing as attacking number 8s, getting forward from midfield. Expect to see a few old faces throughout August, as there’s no sign of any outgoings for now.
8. Wilfred Ndidi is the new Frank Lampard
The way Maresca has used Ndidi has been one of the most fascinating/alarming aspects of his tactical plan. With Winks in the holding role and Hamza Choudhury used as cover, you might have thought there’d be no place for Wilf in the side.
Instead, the Nigerian has been utilised as an attacking midfielder, often the furthest man forward after running in behind the striker. He missed a great chance to finish a sweeping move in the second half at Northampton, scored against Port FC, and had a scarcely-believable two one on one chances against Liverpool after springing the offside trap.
It seems hard to believe that Ndidi, perhaps the most notoriously terrible shooter in the Leicester squad, is really going to be one of our primary goal threats. Maybe he’s just filling space until he leaves and someone else arrives. But the rumour mill has stopped turning and he’s kept playing. Will Coventry be able to cope with Wilf 2.0?
9. This is the Enzo show
Overall, the one real big takeaway from the summer is that Maresca has the keys to the kingdom. A lot of angst and concern remains online about the relative lack of incomings, Coady’s injury, the failure to properly clear the decks. But the one big reason to believe is the manager, and the fact the club has given him free reign to overhaul things and rebuild them in his image.
The coaching staff has been almost entirely revamped. Mike Stowell and Adam Sadler are gone, so too is the set piece coach Lars Knudsen, whose most notable achievement was failing to get a visa. In have come Maresca’s men: Willy Caballero, Danny Walker, Michele De Bernardin and friends.
The signings all bear the unmistakable stamp of the Guardiola blueprint. A goalkeeper who can pass, Callum Doyle is on loan from Manchester City, many of the prospective signings to come are young, exciting, attacking players. Leicester are all-in on Enzo and that, at least, is something new to get excited about after two years of turgid decline.
