Leicester are in the middle of their preparations for the new season coming up, and still players are not back from the Euro’s with Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Ward and Dennis Praet not yet seen back at the club. Three games into the pre-season with something of a mix of everything you surely can’t judge much out of the results, just yet.
Over they years you have seen some strange results as lower league teams have taken on the giants and surprised both themselves and their opponent, but as we all know in pre-season a lot can happen.
Embed from Getty ImagesLeicester have in recent years had predictable pre-season results, and a bit of a small worry that results this term has been less than impressive, but of course explanations to those results can be found in the way we would like them to be. There are always excuses but to lose out in a penalty shoot out for a trophy at Burton was disappointing. To not be able to defeat Wycombe away also cannot be described as “very good”.
The start away to QPR was also terrible, but again finding a number of positives with new players getting a chance to shine and of course being able to fight back after being 0-2 down is good, and as we did see last season, struggles at home against Fulham especially.
Embed from Getty ImagesLooking at other clubs and their preparations you will also find numbers and figures that are seen as surprises, with Aston Villa losing against Stoke, but easily winning 4-1 away against Nigel Pearson and his Bristol City.
Manchester United are among the favorites in next seasons PL, and was defeated by QPR and Brentford, so OGS and his men have a lot of work to do as well, though probably not lining up their first eleven just yet, as players also are away.
Man Utd played with a weaker side and with many players absent it was as OGS said a test for the youngsters to understand what league football is all about, and hopefully QPR are among the better teams in the Championship and will be a handful for most teams this season.
Embed from Getty ImagesChelsea and Thomas Tuchel are getting along nicely with a big win v. Peterborough and also defeated Bournemouth away, more games coming up later in the pre-season period. Arsenal went north for two games, playing Hibs and Rangers, coming home with a draw and a defeat but after that defeated Millwall and Watford, so Mikel Arteta can also count positives.
Liverpool are abroad and have played Mainz (1-0) and Hertha Berlin (3-4), and against the German teams managed a win and also seen a defeat. Man City, coming up against Leicester in the Community Shield, has an impressive pre-season so far playing Barnsley (4-0) and Preston (2-0) at the Etihad Campus. Despite not being able to play their best eleven, they still manage to keep their standards and Pep Guardioala keeping the winning mentality in place by fielding smart as his teams tends to secure wins against almost every opponent.
Interesting days coming up as Leicester takes on Villareal on Wednesday and before that PL opener v. Wolves also have the clash with Man City to look forward to.
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