Looking Back To City's 2019/20 Opener vs. Wolves
An exciting summer was fuelled by the arrivals of new signings James Justin, Ayoze Pérez, Youri Tielemans and Dennis Praet as Rodgers applied the finishing touches to his first team squad.
The acquisition of Tielemans, the Belgium international who had shone while on loan at the Club during the preceding campaign, particularly captured the imagination of the Blue Army.
A deal was struck with AS Monaco during City's pre-season stay in Évian-les-Bains and Tielemans was able to meet up with his colleagues on the south eastern border of France.
There was a feeling among the Foxes faithful that Leicester were suitably equipped to continue their progression by bettering the consecutive ninth-placed finishes of the previous two seasons.
Rodgers, meanwhile, had stated publicly upon joining the Club back in February 2019 that his ambition was to return City to European competition during his tenure at King Power Stadium.
Pre-season excitement reached its peak on the morning of Sunday 11 August as the Foxes entertained Nuno Espírito Santo's Wolves, who themselves would be vying for European qualification.
A crowd of 32,015 packed inside King Power Stadium for the new season's curtain-raiser on Filbert Way as Rodgers also provided an indication of his preferred starting XI on the opening day.
The side the Northern Irishman went for on the day was: Schmeichel; Ricardo; Söyüncü, Evans, Chilwell; Pérez, Ndidi, Choudhury, Tielemans, Maddison; Vardy.
There were several talking points. Pérez was handed a Premier League debut for the Club, while Çağlar Söyüncü's maiden start of the season would be his first of 42 outings for Leicester in 2019/20.
For the second time in as many seasons, City began their home campaign against Wolves and Rodgers' men were on the front foot for much of the opening 45 minutes at King Power Stadium.
Jamie Vardy went close to opening the scoring before the interval, but the Foxes No.9 was unable to apply a finish to a searching cross from Tielemans, also making his debut as a full-time Fox.
However, it was in fact the visitors who, albeit briefly, took the lead on Filbert Way as Leander Dendoncker beat Kasper Schmeichel in the home side's net. VAR, though, inspected the replays.
After considerable deliberation, it was decided that Wily Boly had in fact handled the ball on its route into Leicester's net and the goal was disallowed. A let off for City on day one.
Raúl Jiménez was twice denied by Schmeichel in the latter moments, while substitute Harvey Barnes tested Rui Patrício from distance, but neither side could break the deadlock before full-time.
It was perhaps surprising that two teams with such a wealth of attacking talent had in fact nullified one another, but Rodgers was enthused by the nature of his side's performance.
“For 0-0, it was a good game,” Rodgers reflected. “It was always tense and it’s just nice to get competitive football again. Wolves, you can see that they’ve had a few games in competition phases already.
“They’re a good side, you can see they’ve been together for a period of time. They’ve had some big results away from home in particular, so I thought we controlled that element reasonably well."
Although there were no goals in this encounter between Leicester and Wolves, Rodgers' men - who finished fifth - would go on to become an attacking force in 2019/20, breaking several records along the way.
Leicester City 0 Wolves 0
Watch the best of the action from the Foxes' season opener against Wolves at King Power Stadium...