Maresca Braced For Key Juncture

- Leicester City host Swansea City at King Power Stadium on Tuesday (7:45pm GMT kick-off)
- The Foxes are hoping to extend their seven-point clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship
- Enzo Maresca says City are heading towards a crucial moment in their season
- He also discusses his midfield options now Yunus Akgün and Dennis Praet are back

King Power Stadium is the venue for the third time in eight days as the Foxes welcome Luke Williams' Welsh outfit to the East Midlands in the Sky Bet Championship.

Top of the table by a margin of seven points, City are well placed heading into the final four months of the campaign, but must maintain their high levels, the Manager says.

Buoyed by Saturday's 3-0 victory over Birmingham City in the Emirates FA Cup, Maresca has called for focus and determination from his players as they look to complete their objectives.

The Italian made 10 changes to his XI for that success over fellow Championship opposition at the weekend and he admits he had one eye on Tuesday's Swansea showdown.

"The only one that repeated from the last game was Hamza [Choudhury]," he told the media. "We changed 10 players. The reason why was exactly [to be ready for Swansea].

"On Tuesday night, we need to arrive fresh and we need to go again. We need to go again, we need to be fresh. We need our fans on Tuesday. It’s a huge part of the season so it will be a good one."

Maresca has a sense of realism about what his Leicester team has achieved this term, making a record-breaking start to the Championship season.

While City have encountered difficulties in January, the former Parma manager is confident that his side can 'go again' and return to their stunning early-campaign form.  

"We won, it’s important," he said, recalling the Birmingham game. "The good thing about the last two Championship games is that, since we started, I always said to them: ‘Guys, what we are doing is not normal’.

"The normal thing is win, win, lose, draw, lose, draw, win, win, win. For us, losing at Coventry away with 10 players, drawing with Ipswich in minute 90 is not a tragedy. It’s football. Now we need to go again."

Yunus Akgün and Dennis Praet made goalscoring appearances on Saturday and, with options limited in midfielder, their returns from injury is useful for the Manager.

"Absolutely," he explained. "It’s a good thing because probably we can use both when we need. Now they’re back – we didn’t have them.

"Now with them both fit, they can hopefully be fit for the rest of the season and we have more choice.

"They are quite similar, they are more technical than physical… (injured) Wilf [Ndidi] and (recalled) Cesare [Casadei] are different profile to Dennis and Yunus.

"Probably Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall], Yunus, Dennis, they are more or less the same [in profile]."