‘No Time To Dwell’ – Maresca’s Pre-Plymouth Thoughts
The Foxes’ promotion push continues under the lights at Home Park on Friday evening (8pm BST kick-off), with the Sky Bet Championship leaders looking to extend their advantage at the top of the table.
Prior to meeting the Pilgrims, Maresca outlined his pre-match views to the assembled media inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground…
‘Not a lack of performance’
Despite keeping two clean sheets in the last 10 matches, City hold a very strong defensive record, with only Leeds United conceding fewer league goals this term. At the other end of the pitch, Maresca believes it is just a matter of taking opportunities when they present themselves.
The 44-year-old commented: “We are the second-best defenders and we have been the first for most part of the season. We have the second-best attack and we have had the first for the most part of the season. We are not concerned.
“We create many chances and the other day (vs. Millwall) I think six or seven clear chances. We concede the goal and we concede the one vs. one [in the] second half with Mads [Hermansen] and then we didn’t concede any more clear chances.
“We had Stephy Mavididi after five minutes, Kel (Kelechi Iheanacho), Pat (Patson Daka), Ricky (Ricardo Pereira), Abdul [Fatawu], Yunus [Akgün]. But it’s football. You don’t score; they score. But we are not worried about the goal we conceded or the chances we miss.
“They are human beings. They are players and they want to score goals. But sometimes it doesn’t happen. I don’t think any player in the world when he gets a chance wants to miss, but it happens.
“In this moment, I said after Millwall and Norwich, especially in the last two or three months, that there is no time to think about what has happened. You have to already be focused on the next one.
“The message was always clear and the same. There is no time to think about the last few games. For me, it was not a matter of a lack of performance, it was just a lack of results. One hundred per cent you can play better each time. We could play better for sure, but I don’t think we deserved to lose.”
‘A matter of balance’
There has been little time to get back on the training pitch once again this week, with a third fixture in less than a week on the horizon. Being able to adjust to the situation is a skill which the Manager considers his players to have demonstrated well this year, providing insight into how they will work towards being as prepared as possible for Friday.
“We played on Tuesday night and arrived back at 3am in the morning,” the Italian explained. “Today (Thursday) we need to travel and then it’s five hours back from Plymouth, the longest trip of the season. If people are worried about healthy players, it is not the correct thing to do.
“We are the only team to play Tuesday and Friday and to play two games in a row away, our competitors don’t. We have already played almost 50 games this season, 41 in the Championship and eight or nine others.
“But it is what it is and we need to adapt. At the end of the season, it’s a normal situation. It is a matter of balance and this will happen until the end. We have a session today and we want to see how they come back.
“Most of them logistically yesterday didn’t do too much, almost nothing but recovery. They will probably need recovery again today and we now prepare for the game tomorrow with the tactical board and video.
“This is the only thing we can do, just to allow them to recover. You cannot spend time preparing for the game inside the pitch. When we play every three days, we use the day after to recover and then two days to prepare for the game.
“One day the way we press, and one day the way we attack. If you try to train, you take a risk that some of them can get injured and also because they are not fit enough to pay attention and do what we require. The players have been fantastic since day one to adapt to this kind of things.”
‘They play to survive’
Standing in City’s way are a Plymouth side who remain in danger of relegation, sitting just two points above the dotted line. Having just faced a side who in similar peril, Maresca knows what to expect on the South West coast.
And while Leicester slipped up at The Den on Tuesday, closest challengers Ipswich Town and Leeds United also failed to score in midweek, both only managing home draws in their respective fixtures.
“It will be like Millwall,” he stated. “They play to survive so it will be like that. We need to embrace it. The good thing is that now for every club it is almost the same - everyone can drop points. Anything can happen because teams are at the end of the season.
“In the last eight games, all the clubs are a little bit tired because we are at the end. Ipswich, they are also playing since the start with the pressure. Leeds are there. Southampton is again there. We are all there.
“Even if the desire is there, the target is close and we need to win games, even with that, they are human begins and can be tired. In any moment, we could drop points because it’s not normal from the players and it doesn’t happen in football that you win all the games.
“In the first 23 games, I think we won 19. I expected a moment where we were dropping points. Now we are happy in the place where we are and the reality of the situation that we are in.
“We’re going to try and be ready on Friday night and to finish the season in the best way we can. In this moment, it’s just a matter to try and find a way to win games. Hopefully we can be there and be happy with our season.”