Maresca Highlights Importance Of Mental Strength

- Leicester City visit Tranmere Rovers in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday
- Manager Enzo Maresca says the Foxes must keep their feet on the ground
- His side went top of the Sky Bet Championship over the weekend
- Fans can listen to live audio commentary of Tuesday's game on Foxes Hub

The Foxes will be hoping for a sixth win in a row at Tranmere Rovers in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday after going top of the Sky Bet Championship table with a 2-1 success at Rotherham United last Saturday.

Maresca, though, is eager to temper expectations as the Italian introduces a new way of playing at the Club. Tuesday's trip to Prenton Park is City's reward for a 2-0 win at Burton Albion in the first round earlier this month.

"It's another competition, it's another game and we'll try to do our best," the Manager said. "But to be honest, we have 42 league games to go. We’re going to lose games. We need to be mentally strong. For sure, we’re going to lose games. I [didn’t]  even know if Ipswich won or lost [on Saturday] but in this moment I don’t care.

"The season is so long. It’s important that the fans are close to the team. At the same time, we as a team, as a club, we cannot think that this will be easy – absolutely not. It will be very complicated for sure."

Asked how Leicester can improve on a perfect start to the season - results-wise anyway - Maresca says there are many ways.

"We can play 95 minutes in the way we played against Cardiff in the first half," he added. "We can also play 95 minutes like the last 20 minutes against Rotherham, we were in control.

"That’s why I say this is a process because some games it’s 20 minutes, some games it’s 40 minutes, some games it’s one hour. This kind of idea, in time, you want it to be 95 minutes. It’s not one or two months, it’s a process."

While Saturday's trip to Rotherham necessitated a resilience throughout, he was pleased to see Leicester stick to the idea. He says that they wore the Millers down and eventually benefited from the space offered late on as a result.

"It was a very good performance against this type of team," he added. "They scored many goals from set pieces. The delivery from Cafu is unbelievable and I think we adapted very well. Every time there was a long ball, we fought in the right way. On the ball, I think we could play even more. The last 20 minutes is when we started to play short passes – many passes.

"In the end, the process allowed us to arrive in the last third better. In the way we play, I always say, that because we try to keep the ball for a long time, it’s normal that at the end, for the last half an hour, that we have more control in the game."