Mads Hermansen will hope to be involved this weekend against Cardiff so that he can show off why Enzo Maresca is so enthusiastic about having him in his squad at City
There are no risks, only opportunities, with Mads Hermansen in goal for Leicester City, Enzo Maresca believes.
The club are entering a new era under their Italian boss and supporters will have to get used to their goalkeeper doing more than just keeping the ball out of his net. They were heading in that direction anyway, but with Maresca and Hermansen, it will be a prominent feature of the team’s style.
The Dane, signed from Brondby in the summer, is hoping to be fit to return to the team this weekend after picking up a slight injury just one game into his City career. He will then hope to again show why Maresca was so keen to sign him.
For fans, there is an adjustment to make. Seeing a goalkeeper so heavily involved with the ball at his feet may bring anxiety. There’s nobody to bail Hermansen out if he gets the pass wrong. He has to be spot on at all times.
In his first outing, the pre-season defeat to Liverpool, there were a couple of occasions where he gave the ball away and had to scamper back into position to keep the ball out of the net. City supporters won’t want to see their team continually shoot themselves in the foot like that, and thankfully, there were none of those moments in Hermansen’s official debut against Coventry.
In that game, he attempted 49 passes. In only one Premier League fixture last season did a City goalkeeper attempt more, Danny Ward in the home defeat to Manchester United. It will be a theme of the season, as getting Hermansen on the ball is integral to how City want to attack.
Maresca said: “Mads is the keeper that I want. He’s the keeper I desired to have since day one. I don’t see any risks, I only see an opportunity to play with the keeper.
“The first half an hour against Liverpool we played so well, and it all started from the goalkeeper. He’s in a position where if we come back, he’s ready to play again.
“When we come back and play with the keeper it’s because the intention is to attack better because we try to play with the keeper to bring the opponent in our sights and have more space in behind. If the opponent sits there, it’s difficult to find space. But the reason why we play many times with the keeper is because we want to have more space going forward.”
It makes a difference for the outfield players too, always giving them one more option to find a team-mate’s feet and keep possession. Midfielder Harry Winks said: “It’s great. He’s brilliant with his feet, which is great for us, it’s like having another outfield player. It’s helpful for us when we’re building with the ball and playing.
“He’s great with his feet and he’s very, very good at shot-stopping as well. We’ve got some great goalkeepers here, but since he’s come in, he’s really fit into the team well.”
The doubts for City would have been that with a focus on footwork, how good Hermansen is with his hands would be overlooked. Thankfully, on early evidence, he’s more than competent.
Against Coventry, he positioned himself well to make saves look comfortable, while he also closed the angle well in a one-on-one, and then produced a superb stop late on, before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s winner, when he tipped a deflected strike onto the bar.
Maresca said: “He’s a keeper, he has to save! He was probably our number one target because we knew he could give us both, in the build-up, but also because he’s a good keeper and he makes the saves.”
There will be competition from the likes of Winks and Conor Coady, but if Hermansen pays off to the level that Maresca hopes he does, he could end up being City’s signing of the summer.
