By admin 
For two games in a row, Enzo Maresca has decided to have two goalkeepers on his bench rather than any of Timothy Castagne, Harry Souttar, Victor Kristiansen, Boubakary Soumare, or Patson Daka involved. It does not bode well for their futures.
But what happens if they don’t find new clubs and are still at Leicester City from September onwards? That’s one of the topics on our latest Q+A.
Also on the agenda this week are Danny Ward, James Justin, Luke Thomas, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, City’s good fortune and when it runs out, the inner workings of their transfer dealings, and more. You can read our answers below.
Q: Do you think the current omitted players, if they fail to move on, will actually get integrated back into the playing squad after the transfer deadline?
A: They might have to be, that’s why I do think it’s a gamble from Maresca to leave them out as he is. Let’s say Vestergaard is sold before the deadline. It’s not out of the question. He has said he wants to go and he only has a year left on his deal, and so the club are likely to consider any offer they get for him. If City can’t find a replacement, they will need to reintroduce Souttar to the squad. He might not go straight back into the 11 as Justin could come in and Doyle or Faes could play in the centre of the three, but he might be needed as a sub. But how is he going to feel given the manager has had two goalkeepers on his bench instead of him? I don’t think it’s a great way of keeping players on side that might be needed in the future. It’s the same for Soumare in midfield if Ndidi or Praet leave, and for Daka up front if Iheanacho leaves.
The only way they won’t be re-integrated is if they have too many players at the club and simply can’t fit them all in the squad. Right now, they are three over the limit. They have 30 players in the senior set-up, but Nelson and Marcal are young enough to go on the Under-21 list (Doyle and Casadei, although they’re 20, can’t go on that list because they’re not under a permanent contract). So that leaves 28 players for 25 spaces, and that’s before they’ve even made the winger signings they want to.
But yes, when asked again at the weekend about leaving players out, Maresca hinted that he would reassess their situations after the transfer window. Saying that, I don’t really think he expects many of the five to be at the club.
Q: I get the impression Maresca is very decisive and would not reverse his position on the frozen out players. So they will either go now, in January, next summer, or at their end of contract, go out on loan, or collect wages if they stay, but they would not be ‘thawed’ back in.
A: I do agree with you that Maresca is decisive, and he clearly has very strongly-held ideas about how he wants to play, and that has spread into his team selection with his decisions on the players that he thinks are able to play his style.
But while I don’t think his current approach of cutting the players out is ideal, he has always insisted that they are in contention for selection. I do doubt that at the moment, given the fact he’s putting two goalkeepers on the bench, but he can be blunt about stuff. He did not hesitate in saying Kristiansen and Thomas couldn’t do what Ricardo does in his role at full-back. So for now we’ll have to take him at his word, and that these players could come back into contention if they are still here once the transfer window is over. But I would be surprised if they immediately came back in as starters. The only one I could see doing that would be Castagne, but I’d say he’s the most likely to leave.
Q: With five senior goalkeepers in the squad don’t you think that this is a great opportunity for Ward to be shipped out on loan to Wrexham?
A: Well, I don’t know where Ward will go, but I would expect him to leave. Hermansen and Stolarczyk are clearly Maresca’s starter and deputy in goal, and I’d imagine that when he’s fit, Smithies will carry on as third-choice. That means Ward and Iversen can leave.
I don’t think Ward would want to drop down to League Two because I think it would harm his international chances with the Euros coming up next summer. But neither do I think it’s out of the question. Wrexham are his club, they’re clearly not afraid to make marquee signings, and they are in the market for a goalkeeper after Foster’s retirement.
Q: It has been great watching Leicester string back-to-back victories together to start the season but I can’t escape the feeling we have had a good slice of luck go our way during the early games. Do you think our luck may run out moving forward as the new game plan implementation continues?
A: Yes, I’d agree that the ball has fallen their way a little. I don’t think in any of their three league games you could say they deserved to lose based on the balance of chances, but all three matches have been fairly even. A couple of them could quite easily have ended up being draws.
But yes, the way they are performing at the moment, they won’t keep winning. Unless they improve, they will start drawing games, and they will probably lose a few as well. I think Maresca is well aware of that. But even if they do improve – which I think they will and I think that’s why there is so much excitement – they are going to get the odd game where things don’t go their way or they come up against a particularly stubborn opponent.
I’ve been looking into the stats behind their start and where they need to improve and a lot of it is in turning possession into chances. Only Southampton have completed more passes than City in the three games, and yet seven teams have touched the ball more often in the box. And then, City have had the fifth-highest number of shots from open play, and yet their expected goals from open play is only 13th in the division. So there’s clear work needed in an attacking sense.
Q: How do the internal workings of Leicester always lead to transfer windows that are so ponderous? They take forever to move players on and it takes a really long time to bring in the players they want. Is this all Rudkin, the internal structure of the organisation, or is it normal? And with Maresca seemingly leading the way, has the role of Glover been minimised?
A: I do think it’s partly that every fan thinks their club works slowly, just because they follow the latest every day, and so see all of the incremental updates. But I do agree that City seem to take time to get players out of the door. There’s a stubbornness there that caused them issues last summer and could do so again this summer.
Getting players out of the door will be a collaborative process but it will be Rudkin leading it, though I know there was a story last year about Whelan needing to step in to broker the deal with Chelsea over Fofana, which was at an impasse.
I do think a big part of the problem is that City are usually dealing with foreign clubs when trying to move players on, and they simply don’t have the money. If City are selling a player, they will want to make as much of the fee back as possible, or if they’re loaning, they will want as much of the wages covered as possible. But English clubs pay so much for players, and pay such high wages, that often the negotiating clubs are miles apart when discussions start. That said, if City don’t move on players that Maresca doesn’t want, then it doesn’t feel like they’ve learned from last year.