One Of Those Days, Says Maresca
- Leicester City were beaten 2-1 by Middlesbrough in the Sky Bet Championship
- Jamie Vardy came off the bench to score a consolation for the Foxes
- Enzo Maresca gave his analysis on a disappointing day at King Power Stadium
Finn Azaz and Samuel Silvera helped the visiting Teessiders race into a two-goal lead at the interval, before substitute Jamie Vardy’s late strike proved to be a consolation for the Foxes at King Power Stadium.
Reflecting on a frustrating afternoon, City’s Manager saw his side fashion plenty of opportunities in front of goal, but they failed to take any of them until the 85th minute. By then, it was too late to impact the result. Leicester remain top of the Sky Bet Championship, however, holding a nine-point cushion.
“You try, you create, but we missed chances,” Maresca explained following full-time. “And the opponents, they took their chances. In the first half, I don’t think we deserved to be 2-0 down. We started good. In the first half-an-hour the team was very good.
“And probably after we conceded the first goal, we lost a little bit of balance. That’s not good. And then in the second half we continued in the same way; we continued to create chances.
“We missed them, but it’s football. We were there until the end, we pushed until the end and they did a huge effort, but it was one of those days when you have to drop points.”
The north east outfit, as expected, set up in a more defensive system than usual and managed to stifle the flow and rhythm which we have become so accustomed to seeing from Leicester this season.
The 44-year-old continued: “Probably the only other game that they played with this structure was against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup. They tried it today again but overall, even if they were in a different shape, we created many chances.”
Bringing on the likes of Vardy, Tom Cannon, Yunus Akgün, Kasey McAteer and Marc Albrighton in attacking areas in an attempt to turn the game around, Maresca confirmed there were no injury concerns among those who were substituted.
“They were just technical decisions,” he added. “Sometimes it’s just to try and change some things. We tried and I think Tom [Cannon] did well and also Yunus [Akgün] did quite well. It’s never easy when you go behind, it’s complicated.”