Here we go: Cesare Casadei is a perfect fit for Enzo’s big idea at Leicester City
Leicester City have secured the signing of Chelsea midfielder Cesare Casadei on loan.
Let’s examine why Enzo Maresca was so keen to bring Casadei to the club, how he’ll fit into the new-look Leicester and why this signing is good news for the direction of the club as a whole.
Leicester City's first goal of the Championship season will probably not be the last of its type, but it's far more likely to be replicated by our newest arrival than Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
A cross into the box, a towering leap, a bullet header down past the despairing dive of the goalkeeper and a midfielder wheeling away in celebration. It's what Dewsbury-Hall achieved on the opening day and it's the calling card of loan signing Cesare Casadei, who looks set to usurp Wilfred Ndidi and Dennis Praet as the right-sided roving number eight in Enzo Maresca's masterplan.
Believe the hype?
If Leicester City fans' reference point for a midfielder arriving late into the box to score, especially at Championship level, is Andy King, then Chelsea fans can be forgiven for getting excited about "the next Frank Lampard".
When Chelsea signed Casadei, then manager Thomas Tuchel was even asked about comparisons between the young Italian and the club's record goalscorer. Tuchel understandably played the idea down, but Casadei has since impressed both at the Under-20 World Cup and in Chelsea's pre-season campaign in the United States.
Now he’s getting labelled “the Italian Ballack” instead. No young footballer can ever just be themselves without being asked to be the next somebody. After a stop-start loan at Reading, here is Casadei’s chance to really make a name for himself in a high-profile promotion push.
Of course, despite their recent troubles, Chelsea managers rarely face the reality of throwing youngsters into the starting lineup when they desperately need results at the wrong end of the table. That's the situation in which Paul Ince found himself six months ago as his Reading side fought to stay in the Championship. Casadei made his first start just five days after arriving but then had a spell out of the team.
Just six months have passed since Ince was reluctant to throw Casadei into further Championship action.
“He’s only 20,” said Ince in February. “When you come from Inter Milan, [there is] the culture shock of coming to a new country. To be fair he did okay in the first game, but he is 20 and you look at him in training and you think he just needs a bit more experience.
“You’ve got to remember he’s coming from Italy, trained with the Under 21s or Under 23s – it’s not the same tempo as men’s football. He’s probably one of those where he’ll get better in the next two, three weeks once he knows the tempo of the game. The Championship is a tough, tough league.”
That's the calming down. Now let's hype him up, because Leicester fans are enjoying the opportunity for excitement right now.
Know your role
The YouTube clips of Casadei's goalscoring exploits at the U20 World Cup only tell part of the story as to why we should be excited by his arrival.
The main reason we should be excited is his compatriot in the technical area. There's been talk of Maresca pushing and insisting on the signing of Casadei - and from pre-season, and even from each of our three victories so far, you can see why.
The roles are so clearly defined in Maresca's setup that any players that look out of place stick out like a sore thumb. You can't just expect any defender or midfielder to be able to play the positions designated in this side.
That was most evident with Ndidi's display against Coventry. As with Kasey McAteer on the right, it felt like Ndidi was merely the closest available fit to the player Maresca really wanted there but we didn't possess yet. It was a similar story with Dennis Praet’s failure to finish two sweeping moves at Huddersfield. Ndidi and Praet are both far more accomplished players than you’d normally expect to see at Championship level, but they’re not quite the right fit for Maresca’s vision.
There has been a feeling among Leicester fans that while three wins in all competitions represents a fine start to the season, it’s merely a precursor to what might be possible in the future with two or three further additions in attacking areas.
Delving a bit deeper into Casadei's skillset, he isn't merely a scorer of headers. From clips of his performances for Reading, what comes across is a player adept at keeping possession in tight spaces, a competitor when challenged for the ball, a player you'd trust to get out of sticky situations and, most importantly, progress the play.
Leicester fans are still getting used to the entirely different roles our players now have to fill. There is no strong, combative defensive midfielder in the Ndidi mould. There are no real full-backs in the traditional sense. And, most pertinently where Casadei's signing is concerned, there's no creative number ten.
There have been calls for a "Maddison replacement" but it's already clear we haven't just gone out and bought Championship versions of Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes - Winks needs to be more mobile than Tielemans was, Mavididi more defensively sound than Barnes - and this is even more obvious in Maddison's case.
The number eight, or box-to-box, positions in Maresca's formation are asked to play in the pockets between the opposition defence and midfield. If that sounds like Maddison's space, then the fact there are two of them changes the game entirely. And without the ball, they're needed to drop back and support Harry Winks at the base of midfield when Ricardo slots in at right-back.
There were precious few through balls for Jamie Vardy on the opening day, and not just because we didn't have a Maddison-type player - it's simply not the way Maresca wants to play. So far, the majority of clear opportunities have fallen to the number eights. In fact, we may end up with the likes of Dewsbury-Hall and Casadei matching or even surpassing the goal tallies of our centre-forwards.
Square pegs
Apart from anything else, it's a simple pleasure to see a square peg brought in to fit a square hole after some of the hilariously ill-suited signings made under previous recruitment regimes. Given Brendan Rodgers was at the club for four years, it's ludicrous that we've ended up having to sign a whole new team to play possession-based football while trying to find buyers for the likes of Patson Daka and Harry Souttar.
The January signings of Souttar, Kristiansen and Tete appeared to make sense because they filled enormous gaps in our starting lineup - height and physicality in defence, a right winger - but it was a mirage. There was no overall plan. The fact we still got relegated and neither of our two big-money winter buys are seen as key players in the division below is fairly damning.
On the flipside, the fact we now have a clear plan of how we're going to score goals in particular, we're signing players that fit into that plan and we have a manager who is getting the players he wants is such a massive upgrade on what has plagued us for the past few years it's hard not to smile.
While we can't guarantee the specific signing of Cesare Casadei will be a success, at least we can have more confidence things are going in the right direction.
