Nigel Pearson promised Leicester City's final pre-season friendly would not be a dress rehearsal for next week's Premier League opener against Everton.
He was true to his word because anyone looking for clues to how City will line up next Saturday was left disappointed.
Despite naming a Premier League match-day squad, with seven subs, there was little on show to give Everton manager Roberto Martinez a hint of not only the personnel City will pick, but the system they will employ as well.
There are some names that are no-brainers, absolute certainties to start next week.
Captain Wes Morgan will be a focal figure and he headed what would prove to be the winner from a corner after just seven minutes against Bundesliga side Werder Bremen.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel also produced two excellent stops in the first half when City gifted one-on-one opportunities to their German visitors through some sloppy defending – scenarios they can ill afford to repeat against the Toffees.
There seems to be just one question to be answered in City's back four.
Will Pearson opt for the youthful energy and athleticism of Liam Moore, or plump for the experience and physicality of Marcin Wasilewski to partner Morgan?
Moore was given the full 90 minutes and he impressed, although he drew a rare friendly yellow card for one robust challenge at the start of the second half.
In fact, that wasn't his only fully committed tackle as he cut the figure of a man playing for his place.
Wasilewski came on at half-time and looked assured again, although the game fizzled out as a spectacle in the second half.
At full-back, Ritchie De Laet and Paul Konchesky look certainties to start next week, as do the central midfield partnership of Matty James and Danny Drinkwater, who were given 45 minutes each here.
The possible arrival of Esteban Cambiasso may change that though.
It is as the attacking force where the biggest questions lay.
City started the match in a 4-2-3-1, with Andy King playing forward of the two holding midfield players.
Marc Albrighton and Riyad Mahrez provided the width and David Nugent operated as the lone striker.
Albrighton may have been a favourite to start next week but now his participation is in doubt after he limped off after 41 minutes with a groin injury.
Albrighton swung a deep cross into the box and with no-one else around him he crumpled to the turf and had to be shepherded off the pitch. The sight of Anthony Knockaert on crutches with a protective boot around his damaged ankle also makes him a major doubt for next weekend and suddenly, after having an abundance of wing options, Pearson now only has Mahrez as a recognised wide man.
Jamie Vardy had been used wide early in pre-season but he is another doubt with a thigh injury,
Then there are the strike options. Nugent has been in form during pre-season with four goals and he played the lone role well in the first half. But he also has the skills to play in various attacking roles; in the hole behind a striker or out wide; and his ability to bring others into the game could see him utilised in that key supporting central role.
That is likely to leave record signing Leonardo Ulloa to lead City's forward line and he came the closest to adding a second for City with a close range header which hit Bremen keeper Raphael Wolf's foot as he was diving the wrong way and bounced to safety.
The architect of the chance was Nugent, which suggests the two could forge a decent understanding next week.
Pearson has been keeping his cards close to his chest in the build-up to the Everton game, but it isn't long now before he has to lay his hand on the table.
Then all will be revealed.