‘I Expect To See A Different Team’ – The Talk On Tranmere
- Leicester City face Tranmere Rovers in the second round of the Carabao Cup
- The match at Prenton Park has a 7:45pm BST kick-off
- Tranmere beat Barnsley in the first round of the competition
- It’s not been an ideal start to the season, says Liverpool Echo's Luke Feather
The high-flying Foxes are enjoying their best start to a season in the Club’s history, winning all five of the opening matches, four coming in the Sky Bet Championship which keeps them at the summit.
However, Tuesday’s night fixture will require Enzo Maresca’s side to focus back to the Carabao Cup, when they face Tranmere in the second round after dispatching Burton Albion in the first round three weeks ago.
Feather, a reporter from Liverpool Echo has shared his thoughts on the Tranmere camp, prior to their meeting with the Championship leaders at Prenton Park.
“The expectations around the club were set pretty high by manager Ian Dawes, and the way the players were talking in pre-season,” the journalist opened with. “There was a lot of emphasis on getting the right characters in that had been there and done it in terms of getting promoted.
“I think four of the signings have been promoted from Sky Bet League 2 and they’ve come in and they know what’s required. But they’ve been hampered by injuries a little bit in pre-season, especially with the two strikers that they wanted to build the team around, in Luke Norris and Kristian Dennis.
“I’d say the Leicester game has come at a good time, in terms of having less pressure than a league game. I don’t think people are expecting Tranmere to get a result and we'll see Leicester dominate a lot of the ball.”
A difficult start to the season has seen the Superwhites sit towards the bottom of the Football League, with just one win from their opening five games in the fourth tier.
“The mood at the minute is that they need to start picking up points,” he continued. “The performances have been there for a lot of the season, and even in the games that they’ve lost. Particularly at Milton Keynes Dons which I think was one of the best performances this season despite losing 1-0.
“They were unlucky in the second half to not score, but there has been an emphasis by the manager that if we focus on performances then results will come. But the worry now is that in the last couple of games, such as the second half against Salford City, the team have capitulated.
“We were 2-1 up at half-time and ended up losing 4-3. The story was the same for the whole game against Notts County. The last 10 minutes or so it looked like they might be able to snatch at a draw, but the mood at the moment is pretty low.”
Tranmere’s only win this season, apart from beating Barnsley in the first round of the competition, came against Harrogate Town in mid-August, and they most recently fell to defeat against Notts County, who were playing National League football last term.
In an attempt to turn things around, the journalist believes a change in formation could be expected and that manager Dawes may set up slightly differently against City.
“It’s not been a good start to the season,” Feather added. “This cup fixture comes at a good time, because no one expects them to get anything, like the Barnsley game in the first round, who we beat after their 7-0 victory on the opening day.
“When you’ve had the form that Tranmere have had, you can’t really stick with the same team. With the expectations being a bit lower, he might try something a bit different.
“It’s no secret that we’re a bit light in some positions, especially at full-back, which is the main concern. We’ve got one left-back (Jake Leake) who is on loan from Hull City and then we don’t really have a recognised right-back; we’ve been playing midfielders there.
“He will see it as a chance to try something new, whether that’s a change of shape or another man in defence to sure things up a bit, but he will make changes to give players chances who have been on the fringes of the squad."
Despite being closer to the wrong end of the table, the club’s aims are still as clear – to achieve promotion out of League 2. With a long way to go in terms of fixtures and settling into their style of play, Feather labels this cup game as a ‘no-pressure’ environment, but still holds hope that anything can happen.
“They’ve signed players to try and get out of this league,” he explained. “It’s still early days into the season so there’s plenty of time to turn it around, and it’s going to be very tight this season.
“Who goes up this year is still up in the air, but from the club’s side, they’re still hopeful of promotion whereas the fans’ perspective is that they might get out of this league, but at the other end.
“Leicester is one of the toughest games that we could’ve drawn, with the form that they’re showing in the league so far this season, but then we didn’t expect anything at Barnsley either.
“They played a very changed team, with seven or eight changes to the team that beat Port Vale 7-0, so I’m thinking that Leicester will make a couple of changes as well which might spark some belief for Tranmere.
“As long as we stay compact and use the ball when we do win it back, then it might not end the way we think. But that’s been the problem so far this season, we don’t see much of the ball, so we need to learn to make more of the counter-attacks when they do come.”