A tentative first step for Enzo Maresca’s Leicester City – this is a work in progress
It could have been any of the nine previous opening days of the season at King Power Stadium as fans wandered down Aylestone Road, Upperton Street, Burnmoor Street and, finally, Raw Dykes Road to reach Filbert Way.
There was a sense of anticipation and excitement as they funnelled past the burger vans into the ground. A sellout crowd and a full allocation of 22,000 season-ticket holders were relishing their first glimpse of a new dawn.
The same matchday staff greeted the supporters after a short close season and 2,000 flags were positioned around the stands to give the players a rapturous welcome. In the Kop, a giant tifo bore the Latin phrase ‘semper eadem’, a motto of Queen Elizabeth I that means ‘always the same’.
But this wasn’t the same.
This was Leicester City back in the Championship. This was Leicester City recovering from the trauma of relegation just over two months ago. This was Leicester City trying to rebuild and regenerate.
There was a new man in the dugout, Enzo Maresca, with a new approach to how he wanted Leicester to tackle the Championship. This was the competitive debut of ‘Marescaball’ – the possession-based, Pep Guardiola-inspired approach the players are trying to adapt to.
There were four new faces on display and some familiar faces playing in different roles, including Wilfred Ndidi, whom Maresca is attempting to change from a defensive midfielder to a box-to-box No 8.
There were just two starters from the last game at King Power, the final-day Premier League win over West Ham United that proved to be in vain.
These are incredibly early days for Maresca, but there will be some aspects of his side’s 2-1 win over Coventry City that will encourage and concern him in equal measure.
Goalkeeper Mads Hermansen was Maresca’s number one transfer target this summer because of his ability to play out from the back as well as his shot-stopping. Both were on show and, while some supporters expressed their frustration after Leicester went a goal behind as Hermansen took his time to weigh up his passes, it is a style here to stay under Maresca. He also came to Leicester’s rescue on plenty of occasions.
This is a style of play that is a work in progress. There were even signs on the pitch that the players were still working it out themselves.
Before kick-off, Jannik Vestergaard, Wout Faes and Ricardo Pereira, who may be tagged as an inverted full-back in Maresca’s new system but played much more in midfield as Leicester dominated possession, were involved in an animated discussion. Jamie Vardy then expressed his frustration as he closed down the Coventry defence only to find no backup behind him.
Callum Doyle and new signing Stephy Mavididi, who has only trained with his new team-mates for one week following his arrival from Montpellier, were on completely different wavelengths at times, although the winger has the makings of an exciting prospect when he settles in.
In midfield, another debutant, Harry Winks, oozed Premier League quality, although he and Pereira were caught in possession on a number of occasions as Leicester were unsettled by Coventry’s industry and aggression.
There were also some familiar failings. A lack of pace and communication at the back at times allowed Coventry, the best counter-attacking side in the Championship last season, to break through with alarming regularity. Only some horrendous finishing prevented the game from being put beyond Leicester in the second half.
The fact they were just one down, again to a familiar failing of set-piece defending, offered them a reprieve, but it will encourage the rest of the division that they can get at this Leicester defence.
The fact Maresca’s side could take advantage was due to two positive factors. They had the luxury of a bench with talent that cost over £100million ($128m) and, on the pitch, he had a midfielder in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who, as a fan of the club, will have felt the devastation of relegation more than most.
At times it looked like Coventry had more desire, tenacity and fight than Leicester, who often seemed casual, but Maresca believes it was down to the psychological impact of relegation more than a lack of fight.
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