Continue To Find Solutions – Maresca Previews Hull Clash
The Tigers present Leicester’s latest league challenge in the Sky Bet Championship, following a run of four straight victories - and six across all competitions - to sit top of the second-tier standings.
Ahead of the weekend’s fixture, Maresca sat down to address the media in his pre-match press conference from inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground…
Looking ahead to Saturday
Giving his assessment of Hull City, the Italian sees similarities in the way that Liam Rosenior’s outfit set up, compared to the other sides that Leicester have faced so far this term, but the idea will remain the side no matter who they play.
“It’s a team that want the ball, they want to control the game like us and for sure it will be a difficult game,” Maresca analysed on Friday. “It’ll probably be a bit different from the previous games.
“Without the ball they work more or less similar to Cardiff when they came here, 4-4-2. In this case, when they have the ball, they are less direct, they try and play a bit more.
“Sometimes we need to continue and to be patient because I know that it’s not an easy situation in terms of being there and trying to play. When the opposition is there waiting, they recover the ball and they try to attack and then start again. But it’s our way to play.
“We’ve played six official games and the four games we’ve played in the league; you see that the opponent were waiting on their side. The team that was a little bit more aggressive and did not wait for us was Rotherham.
“They tried to press us a little bit more until 65-70 minutes, when they dropped. For that reason, we play in a way that, in the second half, the opponent prefers to be like that.”
The transfer window
Focusing on the wingers that Maresca now has at his disposal, having brought in Yunus Akgün and Abdul Fatawu on loan, as well as promoting Academy graduates Wanya Marçal and Kasey McAteer into the first team, strengthening that area was a key target that has been accomplished, he feels.
He explained: “We needed to refresh, to change – and we did, especially with many young players born between 2000 and 2004, so I’m happy with that.
“He (Abdul Fatawu) is very good in one vs. one and very quick, but he was born in 2004 so he needs time. But hopefully for sure he is going to help us. I saw him at Sporting and most of the time he was playing on the right side.
“McAteer is also there, he played the last game and scored twice, Wanya has also played there, and he scored once. So, we have different options, but for sure Yunus and Abdul both prefer to play on the right.”
The attacking mentality
City will not waver from their style as they aim to further develop under Maresca. Asked about shifting the play, the 43-year-old described the difficulties of facing teams set up in a defensive way but acknowledged the need for patient play to come out on top.
“That [cross-field] ball is most of the time possible against a line of four,” he added. “Because when the ball is on one side and they shift to one side, they cannot cover the opposite side. When you have a player like Callum [Doyle] or Wout [Faes], they can switch and it’s a weapon that you need to use.
“When you play against a line of five, because they cover all the space, it’s more difficult to find that ball, but for us it’s a weapon for sure. We scored McAteer’s goal like this. But also we scored the second goal against Coventry exactly the same when Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] scored the second goal, so we’ve already scored two goals like this.
“We try to use the players as weapons to win the game. It could be a solution because they are shifting to one side and on the opposite side, we have a winger there just to try and connect with him to attack. When they are all compact, it is not easy.
“We would love to play from central defence, to midfield, to attack, and then score. This is a dream, but it is not possible most of the time, because they are there and you cannot contact directly with the midfielder or striker or winger, so you need to move them to find the space.”