Enzo Maresca details 'important changes' at Leicester City and outlines risk versus reward

‘Complete performance’… Leicester boss Enzo Maresca

‘Straight back up, straight back up, Leicester City! Playing football the Enzo way!” While Leicester City took another step towards promotion, increasingly looking like a formality, Enzo Maresca was quite keen to reflect on his long-term vision for the club.

Promotion, in the manager’s eyes, is by no means the be all and end all. Clearly, it’s this year’s aim, but Maresca takes great pride in what the club have already achieved while he’s been in situ – and he has had a very particular way of going about it.

The chants from the away end at Watford on Saturday reflect the buoyancy shared by the entire fanbase. They know what is most likely waiting in the coming months, but the Italian points to the changing culture, the work in recruitment that the club has carried out and the inclusion of those previously considered to be at the end of their time at the club.

The scenes at full time at Vicarage Road aren’t something particularly new; Leicester have excelled away from home on many occasions this year, more often than not in fact, but Maresca takes nothing for granted and has enjoyed helping to rebuild the bridges between players and supporters after a tumultuous 12 months prior to his appointment.

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“I said at the beginning it was a complete performance because when we needed to play, we played the way we wanted to against a team who were man to man all game,” Maresca said. “The only player free was [goalkeeper] Mads, that’s why we played with him. When someone jumps to Mads, that means another player is free. We tried to work on that. In the first half we tried some long ball solution from Mads to Pats, to Kiernan, Kasey and Abdul, but it’s not always easy.

“It’s part of this season, we’re trying to change a little bit some things. I realise that for many people and you, that the only thing to see is to get promoted. For me, getting promoted is part of the club only in this moment. This was a club in transition this summer. Barnes, Maddison, Tielemans, Soyuncu… they all moved from Leicester to clubs playing in Europe. We bring new players in, others have played more minutes this year than the last two years.

“I can understand that people see that the only good thing is getting promoted, but there are many more things that we have done, the synergy we create between the players and fans that probably last year wasn’t exactly the same. I understand why for others the focus is promotion, but here we are making many important changes.”

The bigger picture for Maresca, as regards to what he is seeking to roll out at Seagrave – and, clearly, what he already has done – is also taking place on the pitch. As mentioned, there are things he wishes to achieve while in the hotseat, but in a unique style. When Harry Winks makes a mistake which leads to a goal and allows Watford back into the game, then, Maresca doesn’t tear strips off his midfielder because it is, as he says, part of the ‘process’.

He’d rather see his players attempt those passes and play in those tight areas because the reward can outweigh the risk, as was perfectly highlighted with Ricardo Pereira’s fabulous second goal minutes earlier. If that means the odd goal conceded, Maresca can live with that.

“We conceded one, I think it was against Blackburn, we conceded a more or less similar goal,” he reflected. “I have always said that if they try to do what we tell them everyday, and they make a mistake, it doesn’t matter. If they don’t try, they probably aren’t going to play. At the end, Harry was maybe a little sad, unhappy, upset, but it’s not any problem. With the second goal, we are very happy because it was a very nice goal. The performance was good.”