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It was a strange decision.

For almost the entirety of the summer, we have seen Leicester City playing in the same system.

With the exception of the double-header against Rotherham and Stoke on the same day, Brendan Rodgers has gone with the 4-1-4-1 formation.

The system encompasses a deep midfielder, two attacking midfielders just ahead, two wingers and a striker.

The Foxes had varying degrees of success, going unbeaten through pre-season but largely against lower-tier opposition.

At times, the system looked terrifyingly dangerous going forward, but it did bring frailties at the back, then again, that's the whole point of pre-season, to iron out those errors, to perfect the system at hand.

And we thought the Foxes might be on their way to doing that.

In their final pre-season game, City played Italian outfit Atalanta, who were selected because they play five at the back, just like opening opponents Wolves.

City struggled to adjust to Atalanta's shape at times, but ultimately, when they attacked, they looked sharp with the two attacking midfielders, wingers and then Jamie Vardy on top looking too much for their Champions League-bound opponents.

And then the teamsheet arrives for the opening game of the season, against Wolves on Sunday, and Rodgers has reverted back to a variety of the 4-3-3 he used heavily last season.

Not only that, but he took the bite from the wing by removing Marc Albrighton, who has impressed during pre-season, replacing him with central attacking midfielder James Maddison.

Along with Ayoze Perez - another central attacking midfielder by nature - on the other side, City were left with no wide men.

Rodgers explained his thinking behind the idea after the game, he said: "It was just, with two players either side of Jamie (Vardy), so that we could try to provoke the three centre halves, so you had Jamie central and Ayoze (Perez) and James (Maddison) just playing off and the width then coming from the full-backs.

"It was 4-3-3, but just a different shape coming at the front.

"When we felt we needed more football in the middle of the field, Hamza (Choudhury) came off - and he did a good job - and then we put James back and put a winger on to look to stretch the game again."

Of course, Rodgers' plan for the game has to be respected, he is a top coach who knows what he's doing.

But on reflection, he got this one wrong.

The City boss played it safe and arguably missed an opportunity, resulting in a goalless draw at home on opening day.

(Image: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)

The Foxes were most vulnerable against Atalanta - a team headed for the Champions League after finishing third in Serie A, by the way - at the start and then after the restart.

Against Wolves, they started slowly, even against a Wolves side who were in Armenia just three days previous, and their worst spell was again just after half-time.

And so the change of system failed to pay off, it didn't address the concerns the final pre-season game brought, other than a small defensive improvement, which largely came thanks to Caglar Soyuncu putting in a terrific display.

It offered City little extra protection defensively, and it completely limited them going forward.

The lack of wingers put an onus on the full-backs, Ricardo and Ben Chilwell to get high and wide, but they rarely did with Wolves' wing-backs always looking for an opportunity to catch their opposite number out of position.

And that left the Foxes blunt in attack, with too much football in the middle of the field and not enough punch.

Key attacking Stats Vs Wolves James Maddison averaged 2.8 key passes per game last season, but playing wide of centre on Sunday, he only managed two.

Maddison was also dispossessed three times, compared to his average of 1.1 times per match last season.

City managed an average of 4.84 shots on target per game last season, but managed just one against Wolves.

The Foxes accumulated an average of only 453 passes per game in 2018/19, but on Sunday, they completed 665 passes, more than any other Premier League team on matchweek one.

Jamie Vardy averaged 2.3 shots per game last season, but managed no shots in the draw against Wolves.

City completed an average of 2.31 through balls last season, but managed only one on Sunday.

Against a back five, you have to be quick and efficient in attack. Playing slow build-up is playing into the opponent's hands. You're not going to pass your way through a back five, especially not against a Wolves side who were always going to play safe with the protection of midfielders just days after a long trip to Armenia.

Throughout pre-season we have seen Perez playing narrow, but it hasn't been predictable with Rodgers also playing an out-and-out wide man on the other side and then rotating the wingers from side to side.

This time, he went with Maddison, who, uncharacteristically, had little effect, playing far too narrow and giving City no outlet wide, and in turn, his presence in the middle limits passageways for Vardy to run into.

Rodgers' men managed just one shot on target and racking up 70% possession, most of it useless.

Though, that's not an indictment of the style the Foxes boss wants to play, he does want lots of possession, but throughout the summer he made clear that the primary aim is to up the chance creation.

Here, City went backwards in that respect, and it's much to do with the system used.

It's baffling how, even against Wolves who were one of the best defences in the league last season, City, armed with Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Perez and Vardy, couldn't create more than one shot on target.

In fact, the only shot on target they did manage was when winger Harvey Barnes came off the bench to strike from range.

One of only two times City came close to scoring was from Barnes, who, in another phase of play, got to the byline before pulling a low ball across the box.

And it's thanks to young Barnes that the Blue Army can draw a positive from error in judgement.

The 21-year-old's performance off the bench can only have shown his boss what his team can achieve when wingers are introduced.

In any case Rodgers may have reverted to the 4-1-4-1 or similar for this Sunday's trip to Stamford Bridge, but having seen just how the winger-less 4-3-3 limits his talented forward-thinking players, surely he has now made his mind up.

Defensively, City have nothing to worry about, Soyuncu and Jonny Evans already look to have the makings of a fine centre-back partnership, and while Ricardo and Chilwell need to shake off some rustiness, the Foxes have two fantastic full-backs in the duo.

The back four should look after itself, but City cannot afford failure to get the best out of their attacking players this season, not in game one, two or 38.

If they are to be successful, it's the Foxes' abundance of creativity that's going to set them apart from their rivals this season, and they cannot waste the opportunity to maximise it at every turn.