Pre Season 2025/26

[teblin]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Heard good things, shame they couldn't work it for him to get the full 45 mins but hopefully he gets 45+ mins on Friday

There was one bit that made me take notice, a ball played to him in a tight area in the number 10 role, held off his marker turned and played a great through ball to Ayew.

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/leicester-city-friendly-charity-match-10362321

 

Leicester City friendly will be charity match for school shooting victims
Leicester City face German side Koln this Friday, with proceeds from the game to go to support a secondary school where nine students and a teacher were killed last month

ByJordan Blackwell
12:04, 21 JUL 2025

Leicester City’s friendly against FC Koln this Friday is to be played in support of victims of a school shooting.

City take on the Bundesliga side at the Merkur Arena in Graz at the end of the week to round off their Austria training camp.

It has now been announced the friendly will be a charity match, with proceeds going to the parents’ association of BORG Dreierschutzengasse, the secondary school where a shooting took place last month.

 

Nine students aged between 14 and 17 and a teacher were murdered by the gunman, who then killed himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern Austrian history and three days of mourning were declared.

All ticket proceeds from the match will be donated to the parents’ association, while free tickets are available for students from the school.

The 16,000-capacity Merkur Arena, home of Sturm Graz, is being provided free of charge by Austria’s second city, while City and Koln, as well as organisers International Football Camps Styria (IFCS), will donate €5,000 each, with a €15,000 cheque to be presented to the parents’ association on the day.

State governor Mario Kunasek said: “Styria stands united behind all those affected by this unimaginable tragedy. The charity match in Merkur Arena is a strong symbol of compassion, solidarity, and human togetherness.

“I thank you IFCS, FC Koln, Leicester City and all involved for their commitment and their clear message: we do not leave the school community of BORG Dreierschutzengasse alone in this difficult time.”

Kian Walizadeh, managing director of IFCS, added: “This game is much more than a sporting event. It is a sign of solidarity, remembrance and support for a school community affected by the disaster that has left a deep mark on our city.”

The City squad will be split in two on Friday, with one side playing Ukrainian side Karpaty Lviv near the club’s training base in Friedberg (10.30am kick-off UK time), before the other team head to Graz to face Koln (4pm kick-off UK time).

City have just one pre-season friendly remaining when they return, at home to Fiorentina on Sunday, August 3, with their competitive campaign beginning the following weekend against Sheffield Wednesday.

After three games this summer City have a 100 per cent record, with Marti Cifuentes’ first game on Saturday ending in a 1-0 win over Hungarian outfit. Zalaegerszegi.

[Lambert09]

4 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Monga will push Mavididi and Fatawu on either wing. If El Khannouss goes then he may well play in the 10 role. I think Alves will get good minutes covering those roles too. More often than not he made a difference coming off the bench for Cardiff vs starting games.

 

Aluko is also ready to start, as is Nelson obviously.

 

Evans and Page will hopefully get a good amount of appearances too.

 

Sheffield Utd and Sunderland both built their teams around a batch of young players/academy players and it has to be number one priority for us.

What concerns me is that him and Evan’s and page only got 20 mins.  2 of these aren’t getting past 3rd choice  at this stage and if Marti appears to have his wingers switch sides… could be even less opportunities. 
 

If that’s all we can get them in a preseason game then I’m a little worried where they find the minutes in the regular season. May have to wait for injuries that never come. 

it’s a good problem to have but not for their development and for alves in particular… this needs to be his breakthrough season 

 

we will see what marti is thinking as preseason goes on 

Edited 21 July 2025 by Lambert09

[EnderbyFox]

 

[Claridge]

On 20/07/2025 at 23:07, Jobyfox said:

Is Soumare dominant at anything? 🤔

fxxking annoying me

[Foxes96]

17 minutes ago, EnderbyFox said:

 

Wonder if they could be the two teams for Friday …

 

Didn’t spot Ricardo or Monga in that? Good to see Nelson back playing, hopefully gets at least 45 mins

Edited 23 July 2025 by Foxes96

[Sol thewall Bamba]

From the friendly the other day I'd say we looked fitter than we have done in previous pre seasons. There were a couple of occasions we lost the ball and the whole team immediately triggered into a really strong recovery run. Do get though that we changed the full XI so there isn't an excuse to not be fresh but it's a decent sign. 

 

Punished myself by watching some of the Lens friendly back from last summer and we looked like we'd spent 4 weeks at the buffet.

[AjcW]

6 minutes ago, Foxes96 said:

Didn’t spot Ricardo or Monga in that? Good to see Nelson back playing, hopefully gets at least 45 mins

Was about to say the same, there was a few 'subs' for each side so may have just been on the side, or being managed/doing some recovery work indoors.

[Tommy G]

On 21/07/2025 at 15:27, Lambert09 said:

What concerns me is that him and Evan’s and page only got 20 mins.  2 of these aren’t getting past 3rd choice  at this stage and if Marti appears to have his wingers switch sides… could be even less opportunities. 
 

If that’s all we can get them in a preseason game then I’m a little worried where they find the minutes in the regular season. May have to wait for injuries that never come. 

it’s a good problem to have but not for their development and for alves in particular… this needs to be his breakthrough season 

 

we will see what marti is thinking as preseason goes on 

I guess Alves will have to give the manager a problem by making it impossible not to select him - I get we have to develop players, but it's up to the player to push himself into the side and take opportunities that are presented to him - same goes for any player.  

[Lesta2014]

1 hour ago, Foxes96 said:

Wonder if they could be the two teams for Friday …

 

Didn’t spot Ricardo or Monga in that? Good to see Nelson back playing, hopefully gets at least 45 mins

Monga appears to be training today, he’s on the latest clip on lcfc Instagram story. 

[Paninistickers]

Vaguely interesting that the socials on training have really dialled down. 

 

Suspect the new manager isn't overkeen now the work is probably more tactical than fitness 

[Tommy G]

Just now, Paninistickers said:

Vaguely interesting that the socials on training have really dialled down. 

 

Suspect the new manager isn't overkeen now the work is probably more tactical than fitness 

Agreed - the most important thing is what the manager wants and needs, not whether someone gets a buzz about seeing our players run about in training. 

[Claridge]

28 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Agreed - the most important thing is what the manager wants and needs, not whether someone gets a buzz about seeing our players run about in training. 

See them run about this season would be a nice change from last

[Lambert09]

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I guess Alves will have to give the manager a problem by making it impossible not to select him - I get we have to develop players, but it's up to the player to push himself into the side and take opportunities that are presented to him - same goes for any player.  

Fully understand this and it always sounds great but the reality in football is different. You need opportunities to take and it’s very hard to push ahead of people if you only get a few opportunities. 
 

He’s still learning, so his performances will be rough around the edges and the only way to iron those out is with minutes, either here or somewhere else.  He didn’t do himself any harm in that run out but it highlights how difficult it will be to actually break into the side. 
 

 

[Tommy G]

25 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

Fully understand this and it always sounds great but the reality in football is different. You need opportunities to take and it’s very hard to push ahead of people if you only get a few opportunities. 
 

He’s still learning, so his performances will be rough around the edges and the only way to iron those out is with minutes, either here or somewhere else.  He didn’t do himself any harm in that run out but it highlights how difficult it will be to actually break into the side. 
 

 

I guess he needs another loan then but he got that in the second half of last season. Not sure what else we can do as a club?

 

Monga seems in front of him at the minute and hes 4/5 years younger. Just frighteningly good and you can leave him out really - hes had small cameos too and really impressed. 

[Ric Flair]

Alves, Monga, Evans and Page should all get good opportunities this season.

 

Discounting Reid who should be told to find another club and Bilal likely off. 

 

Across the 3 positions behind the striker with Mavididi, Fatawu and McAteer will see them very much involved. Page likely to challenge for a CM role too and Evans possibly CF. 

[Noahfence]

2 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Alves, Monga, Evans and Page should all get good opportunities this season.

 

Discounting Reid who should be told to find another club and Bilal likely off. 

 

Across the 3 positions behind the striker with Mavididi, Fatawu and McAteer will see them very much involved. Page likely to challenge for a CM role too and Evans possibly CF. 

I keep saying it but we could be playing 50 games next season. These young guys should be getting plenty of chances 

[EnderbyFox]

 

[PAULCFC]

12 minutes ago, EnderbyFox said:

 

Faes slouching at the back........he doesn't change.

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Discounting Reid

Anyone seen the lad in any videos? 

 

I'm hoping - alot - he'll never have a squad number again, let alone play. If the manager has done any video research, that will be the case.

 

Lad can't kick a ball properly. Can't tackle. Can't head. Slow. Can't track. He can vaguely occupy his wide position on the pitch though, in the same way players used to when done a hamstring and all the subs have been used

[lfu]

[lfu]

48 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Anyone seen the lad in any videos? 

 

I'm hoping - alot - he'll never have a squad number again, let alone play. If the manager has done any video research, that will be the case.

 

Lad can't kick a ball properly. Can't tackle. Can't head. Slow. Can't track. He can vaguely occupy his wide position on the pitch though, in the same way players used to when done a hamstring and all the subs have been used

He was on international duty until 25th of June, so he should've been due back today (4 weeks afterwards) or tomorrow

[Bluearmyfox28]

3 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Alves, Monga, Evans and Page should all get good opportunities this season.

 

Discounting Reid who should be told to find another club and Bilal likely off. 

 

Across the 3 positions behind the striker with Mavididi, Fatawu and McAteer will see them very much involved. Page likely to challenge for a CM role too and Evans possibly CF. 

I think Evans needs replacing with Aluko on that list. Evans is clearly talented but I don’t think he’s ready yet.

[Bluearmyfox28]

1 hour ago, lfu said:

He was on international duty until 25th of June, so he should've been due back today (4 weeks afterwards) or tomorrow

He reported back to training last week.

[dmayne7]

2 hours ago, PAULCFC said:

Faes slouching at the back........he doesn't change.

One of the first videos of Cifuentes giving instructions to the players in training, and Faes was looking away the whole time. Sums him up really.