On Wednesday, Liverpool will play home to Leicester in the League Cup, and they can anticipate facing a significantly different team than they did in the Premier League last year.
When the Reds faced Leicester at Anfield and the King Power last season, they won 2-1 at home and 3-0 away without any issues.
Dean Smith’s team was already on the verge of being relegated at that point, and it was officially confirmed on the final day of the season.
Less than three weeks later, as Leicester prepared for an unexpected return to the Championship, Smith left and was replaced by a fresh face.
On the day Smith’s resignation was officially announced, Enzo Maresca took over, giving Pep Guardiola at Man City Smith’s role as assistant manager.
In addition, 13 senior players left Leicester, including the high-profile transfer of Harvey Barnes to Newcastle and James Maddison to Tottenham. Nine new players were also added.
Conor Coady, a former Liverpool youth, Harry Winks, an English midfielder, and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku, a winger who was heavily linked to a move to Anfield before joining Sporting CP in 2022, were among the newcomers.
Maresca, who lived at Leicester’s training facility for the first two months of his job to “get the sensation,” as he told BBC East Midlands Today, has already presided over 10 games.
Leicester has won nine of those games while only losing once—a 1-0 loss to Hull, one of Leicester’s early-season contenders for promotion—early in September.
Their record currently stands at 18 goals scored, 5 goals allowed, and 5 clean sheets.
When Liverpool faced Maresca’s team in preseason, they experienced the new Leicester, but their 4-0 triumph in Singapore came against