‘Play With The Same Intensity' – Maresca’s Pre-Stoke Message
Sitting top of the Sky Bet Championship with nine wins from 10, the Foxes next welcome Stoke City to King Power Stadium on Saturday. Prior to that 3pm kick-off, the Italian gave an overview of the story so far this season during a chat with the assembled media inside LCFC Training Ground.
He also offered his support to LCFC Women, who are at home this weekend for the first time in 2023/24, completing a Foxes double-header on Sunday when they welcome Everton Women to Filbert Way (3pm kick-off).
‘A huge effort’
Collecting 27 points from a possible 30, only the home defeat to Hull City has prevented Leicester from making a perfect start to the second-tier campaign. With another international break on the horizon, Maresca hopes to finish on the high when the Potters arrive on Filbert Way.
“We’ve said many times, I’m very happy, especially for the players, they deserve it,” City’s Manager remarked in his pre-match press conference. “They are making a huge effort since we started the season to understand the way we want to play to win games.
“I think the international break will be perfect for us, we need to recover energy. We are playing every three days. We are going to try and arrive into the international break better than last time when we lost at home to Hull. The break will be fantastic for all of us.
“We’ll do the same thing we did last time. We’ll see which players are going to be with us and try and focus on the way we can improve them. If we can work on the defensive line and attacking line, it will be much better.
“But we don’t know yet, it depends how many players we’re going to have. But for sure we’re going to focus on how we can improve them player for player.”
Analysis on the visitors
Saturday’s visitors remain in a state of flux at present, with Alex Neil trying to find the perfect formula for success, moulding his new-look side together amid a host of injury concerns. That makes them a dangerous opponent though, Maresca warns.
“They’ve played 10 games like us,” the Italian commented on the 18th-placed Potters. “I think they changed the shape six or seven times. It will be very difficult because at the moment we don’t know how they will play. I don’t have a clear idea of the shape they are going to use, the way they are going to press, the way they are going to build.
“For sure, it is a team where if you see the stats, it’s a very aggressive team. They recover the ball very quickly when they press. They are a direct team and they’ve scored many goals from crosses.
“In this moment, against Stoke, the main concern is how to adapt. We’ll see tomorrow, but at the same time, it’s complicated. For the players, we did some rotation in the past.”
Adapting to the schedule
A 3-0 triumph over Preston North End just over 72 hours on from beating Blackburn Rovers by a three-goal margin on the road is an indication of how well the squad have so far coped with the Championship’s brutal schedule.
That means City have won five games on the road in a league season for the first time since 2013/14.
“In the way they work, they all deserve to play a game,” the 43-year-old said, praising the work ethic he has seen. “On Wednesday some of them deserved to play but we have so many games that in the end all of them will play a lot.
“When you play every three days, training changes completely, because the main part is their recovery. In this moment, we played Sunday, Monday was recovery, Tuesday we just did something on the pitch, but it was short. Wednesday was the game, Thursday was recovery and today (Friday) we are going to do a very short session.
“The most important thing now is the way they recover and the energy. When you prepare a game in the way you like, we have the feeling to control almost everything. It’s just a feeling because then sometimes something happens that you cannot control.
“But at least when you have time to prepare the game, you finish the session with how you attack and how you defend. Now it’s impossible. We use a lot of video, we use the tactical board a lot to explain. There is no time to work on the pitch.”
Finding ways to win
Utilising the different tools the team has at its disposal could be key to unlocking defences, the Manager believes, as opponents come up with new ideas to stop the free-flowing Foxes from playing their game.
Maresca added: “For sure, we are going to concede a goal in the last half an hour in the future and we are not going to score in the last half an hour in the future. It’s part of the plan in the way we play.
“Even when a team sits back like last time, because the game is long, at 60, 70, 80 minutes the opponent struggle to be in the same shape with the same intensity for 90 minutes. We can find more space and at the moment it is working.
“Set pieces are also part of the game and most of the time you can win games with them. Willy [Caballero] is in charge for set pieces. We work almost every week on those. It doesn’t mean that we’re always scoring or that we don’t concede a goal.
“It’s something that we’re working on but at the end, the opponent also try to do something to score goals.”
All times BST.