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No player safe, big-money transfer looms – 10 things learned from first 10 Leicester City games
Ten points from 10 games leaves Leicester City tentatively above the Premier League relegation zone. As far as results are concerned, for a newly-promoted club, it’s been a solid start.
But what have we learned from those 10 matches? What have those fixtures revealed about Steve Cooper’s management and City’s prospects for the season? Here, we run down the 10 biggest lessons we’ve learned from the club’s start to the campaign.
This team has fight
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City have conceded the first goal in eight of their 10 matches, the most in the division. That’s not something they will want to continue, but at least they have the resilience and determination to fight back.
In four of those eight games, they’ve come back to grab a result. At Southampton and Ipswich, they kept going into the dying embers and scored two of the latest goals in the club’s recent history.
That never-say-die attitude could be significant. In the relegation season under Brendan Rodgers, they conceded first in 15 matches and only earned results in four. This team looks like they have more fight about them.
Two good halves proving elusive
There have been portions in every game where City have played well. In fact, they have been so good in periods of a few fixtures so as to do enough to clinch a good result.
But it’s never been comfortable. They’re yet to play well for more than 45 minutes in any game and while doing so is clearly not necessary to pick up wins, it does leave them open to costly results unless they learn to play well before and after half-time, rather than one or the other.
The numbers need improving so City don’t have to defy them
City sit 15th in the table but they rank in the bottom three for shots taken and shots conceded. The underlying stats say they should be a lot closer to the drop zone, or maybe even in it.
So far, they’ve defied the numbers. Their finishing has been extremely good, meaning they’re one of just two teams, along with Manchester City, to have scored in every match so far. They also have a goalkeeper that’s been keeping the ball out of the net at the other end. But the defiance of those numbers may not be sustainable. So improvements are required to ensure there’s no drop-off.
Right flank looks vulnerable
City have conceded 18 goals across their 10 matches and plenty of those have seen the opposition from weaknesses on the right flank, whether that’s crossing from that side or exploiting space in behind. It feels like it's an established weak point now that clubs are catching on to.
James Justin has taken the brunt of the blame but the system hasn’t helped at times. With the right-back bombing on to join the attack and the right winger moving inside to become a second no.10, the rest of the team needs to adjust to cover the space, and that hasn’t always happened.
Cooper isn’t afraid to tinker
Last season, under Enzo Maresca, there was one system and very little deviation from it. In the Italian’s mind, there was no better way of setting up, even if City weren’t performing.
Cooper isn’t that stubborn. He’s already used a couple of systems, one that sees the full-back rush forward and one that sees the full-back invert into midfield, as happened last season. It seems that the manager isn’t afraid to tweak here and there if he feels something isn’t working.
No player is safe
That’s true of personnel too. Only four players have started every league game so far: goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, captain Jamie Vardy, and then two more members of the spine in Wout Faes and Wilfred Ndidi.
But otherwise, there have been changes. Harry Winks, who started every game he was available for last season, has been dropped and reinstated, while Justin sat out the last match. The wingers too have had spells on the bench, while Jannik Vestergaard was brought back in just when Caleb Okoli looked to have made his place safe. It keeps everyone on their toes.
City have a star in Buonanotte
Enthusiasm wasn’t sky high for the arrival of Facundo Buonanotte, with some supporters disappointed they would be training up a rival’s 19-year-old talent rather than using one of their own. But very few are thinking that way now.
The Argentinian is a joy to watch and has been one of the highlights of City’s season so far. His close control and dribbling ability are excellent. But more than that, he helps out the team and presses diligently. He looks destined for the top.
Vardy’s still scoring and City are still reliant on him
When Jamie Vardy scored just three goals in City’s relegation season, it perhaps seemed like the start of the end for the club’s long-time talisman. But then he bagged 20 in the Championship.
How would he fare back in the Premier League? Rather well, it seems. As usual, reports of Vardy’s demise have been premature and he’s already surpassed his goal tally from two seasons ago, netting four in City’s opening 10 matches. He’s playing a lot of minutes too, more than would be usual for a 37-year-old, so it will be interesting to see if he keeps it up when the games come at a quicker rate.
Hermansen may not be here for long
Last season, Mads Hermansen showed just how accurate and composed he was with the ball at his feet. This term, because of the defensive issues City have had, he’s been able to display his shot-stopping ability.
The Dane looks to be top class in both departments. He’s got everything a modern-day goalkeeper needs. That’s great for City for now, but it means the biggest clubs could come sniffing sooner rather than later. Still, City should make at least five times the £6.5m they spent on him.
Next 10 games look tougher
If City can get 10 points from their next 10 games too, then they will have done even better. Because it’s now a little clearer that City had a less difficult start than many of their rivals.
In the next 10 matches, they face five top-half sides and five bottom-half sides, which doesn’t seem overly tough. However, of the top-half sides, four are in the top six, and of the bottom-half sides, all but one are above City.
