While pre-season results don’t count for anything in the grand scheme of things, Leicester seem to have enjoyed a positive summer on the pitch, with four wins from six friendlies in July. What have you made of their preparations?

The performances have been the big positive of the summer and the run of games where they played Hull, Derby and Preston were three of the best pre-season performances we've seen since Brendan Rodgers took charge. They have fluidity in attack, they have played with creativity and intensity and there has been good combination play, with a lot of the attacking players looking in good form.

There have been very few injuries, which is not something they are used to; the past two seasons in particular have been plagued by injuries. It looked as if they might be coming into the season with no injuries at all, but Ricardo Pereira looks to have damaged his Achilles in the final pre-season game against Sevilla last Sunday. Otherwise, this is a fit team, a good team and it should bring some excitement because it’s a team Leicester fans have not seen for a while, because there have always been two or three that have been out injured.

Kasper Schmeichel has joined Nice, while Wesley Fofana is on Chelsea’s radar. Are the fans worried the club has not signed anyone yet this summer?

Yes, they are. Particularly because Rodgers set out, after the January transfer window, the need to refresh the squad a little bit. In the grand scheme of the club’s history, finishing eighth last season and getting to a European semi-final ranks as one of the club’s best-ever seasons, but in terms of recent history, and the two fifth-place finishes in the years before last season, it was a little bit of a disappointment in that you know the performances were not up to it either.

I think there was almost a bit of surprise among Leicester fans that they ended up finishing as high as they did, given the quality of performances. Most people agreed when Rodgers said that they needed a bit of a refresh; something to give them a bit of a revamp. They needed fresh impetus, fresh energy and some players to come in, just shake things up a little bit and maybe get improved performances out of the players currently in the squad. 

It was Rodgers’ third full season as well and I think clubs tend to have these three-year cycles so it kind of made sense. It emerged fairly soon into the summer that they would need to move players on to be able to do all the business that they wanted, but that has not been possible. The pattern at Leicester over previous years has been to sell a big-name player for a big fee, but they did not do that last summer and I think they were resistant to do that this summer, so the plan was to get rid of all the fringe players that they didn't feel were making an impact in the squad and, by doing that, they would build funds and create space on the wage bill. They have just not been able to find buyers for their fringe players and now they're trying to fight against wealthier clubs coming in for their other players.

There are still a few weeks remaining of the transfer window, so which areas do you think they will be looking to strengthen? 

Right wing has really been a problem position for Leicester since Riyad Mahrez left four years ago. It feels like they have brought in a new player every year to try and solve that and none of them have quite taken off. It's clear that it’s the one position that they have not got an obvious starter for coming into the new season.

Which player should Brentford keep an eye on?

I would say James Maddison, despite the rumours about his future, which I don't think will affect him. He won the club’s Player of the Season award last year after scoring 18 goals and creating 12 more in all competitions. From November onwards, he was influential in every game, both in terms of his passing and in his goalscoring. We have seen him score a lot of goals where he has hit shots from range and found the corners, but he has really developed his ability in the box. His footwork and tactical ideas have improved a lot as well and I think he is one of those players that defenders cannot really seem to keep up with. Not because he is especially quick, but he is quick thinking and is really effective in the way he moves his body to create space for himself. Rodgers has said this summer that he is in the best form that he has seen him in during his three-and-a-half years as manager.

How is Rodgers likely to set up on Sunday?

He has decided on what is probably best described as a 4-3-3. He has used a back five at times – or a back three if you want to call it that – but he only uses that in desperate circumstances, when injuries make that formation more effective. With the amount of players Leicester have available, it will be a 4-3-3.

In the middle there will be a sitting midfielder like Wilfred Ndidi and then the other two central midfielders will be box-to-box No. 8s, which is likely to be Maddison and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, unless Youri Tielemans comes in and Maddison is pushed over to the right.

Harvey Barnes, if he's fit and available, will play on the left and Jamie Vardy will be up front. Defensively, it’s very likely to be Timothy Castagne and James Justin as the full-backs and Jonny Evans and Wesley Fofana at centre-back. I don’t think the talk around Fofana and Chelsea will affect Rodgers’ selection plans. 

It’s always difficult to predict the opening game of a new season, but we’re going to ask you to do it anyway! How do you see this one going?

It’s tricky. There is the worry with Brentford that maybe they will fall foul of the ‘second season syndrome’ we have seen a lot with promoted teams in recent campaigns, but I do think they are better organised and have a better manager than most of the clubs before them, so I do not think they will suffer quite the same fate. That said, I am going to say that Leicester will start with a win, so I’ll go for Leicester to go 2-0 up and Brentford to pull one back late on. 2-1.