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Steve Cooper's Leicester City was on display for the first time on Tuesday night as the Foxes defeated League One side Shrewsbury Town 2-1. Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer were on the scoresheet in City's first proper pre-season friendly ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Results, as they say, don't matter in the summer fixtures. Cooper would have wanted an encouraging performance from his squad and for portions of the clash in Shropshire, he got it after two weeks on the training ground.
It was the first time we got to see Leicester under Cooper in the flesh for the first time. After 12 months of Enzo Maresca's slow style, the Foxes have implemented a more rapid approach to their play with a completely different system being played.
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Tactics, especially in football can often be quite complex and difficult. Last season, in particular, was a task in itself to get your head around Leicester's interchanging system under Maresca, albeit how successful it was in the Championship.
But five minutes into Steve Cooper's first non-official game in charge of the club, the idea behind the game plan was pretty clear. On the ball, Leicester set-up in a 3-4-3 formation. Ben Nelson, Conor Coady and Luke Thomas made up the back three with Ricardo Pereira (right wing-back), Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Winks and Abdul Fatawu (left wing-back) in front.
Kasey McAteer and Stephy Mavididi took up very narrow roles to allow space for the two wing-backs with Patson Daka leading the line through the centre. When they didn't have the ball, the players were quick to get into a more-structured line-up.
A 4-4-2 - or 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 depending on how you want to name it - is used out-of-possession with Pereira dropping into full-back and Mavididi playing close to Daka in the forward line. Watching it from the press box, there were a couple of things that were quite noteworthy at Shrewsbury.
One thing noticed was the change in role to two of Leicester's most dangerous players. Fatawu, who was involved in 20 goals in all competitions last term off the right wing, was stationed on the left wing. He was still a nuisance for full-back Luca Hoole but his trademark move of repetitive runs inside were minimal.
Mavididi, who was the regular on the left last year, played down the middle in a shadow striker-type role. He stayed in the hole throughout, working closely with Fatawu while McAteer took up a similar role on the right.
In terms of team play and any indications of that, Leicester played with more tempo than what we were used to under Maresca. Hardly ever was the ball shared across the backline in slow build-up, instead, the aim was to play through the lines via defence to Winks and then to one of Mavididi or McAteer.
One interesting element of the first half was the use of Pereira. The Portuguese resumed his role at right-back and often found himself with acres of space due to Leicester's constant decision to focus play down the left. Leicester didn't get him involved as much as they would have liked, something that visibly frustrated Cooper.
Half-time saw a list of changes with Harry Souttar, Wanya Marcal, Tom Cannon, Caleb Okoli, James Justin, Boubakary Soumare and Hamza Choudhury replacing Coady, Fatawu, Daka, Nelson, Pereira, Winks and Ndidi.
The changes saw Mavididi return to the left, similar to the role that Fatawu played in the first half and Marcal being the inside forward down the left. It also provided a look at a brand new midfield with Choudhury and Soumare partnering.
Soumare, back from his loan spell with Sevilla, continued to be composed in the middle of the park and had moments of class that reminded Leicester fans why they paid £25million for him in 2022. Whether he has a future in Cooper's plans remains to be seen but there's certainly an argument for him to stay.
New signing Okoli fitted into the system rather well despite conceding an unfortunate own goal. The 6ft 3in centre-back was strong, aggressive, measured and cute in all elements of his place. The early signs are that he is a good piece of business by Leicester.
Of course, the Foxes only played League One opposition. The upcoming fixtures against Augsburg and RC Lens will present a tougher test ahead of the start of the season. Early days right now but the signs are more than positive.