Maresca: Manage The Moment
The Foxes’ fate is very much still in their own hands with four games to play. West Bromwich Albion are next to arrive at King Power Stadium this Saturday, one of three fixtures remaining on home soil.
Prior to the 12:30pm BST kick-off, Maresca mused in his pre-match briefing on the upcoming run-in, how he plans to ensure Leicester get over the line and why he feels the teams at the top have all struggled somewhat in recent weeks.
‘Very intense’ opponents
The man in the opposing dugout, Carlos Corberán, drew praise from City's Manager for his tactical nous, as seen in the reverse fixture at The Hawthorns, which ended in a late win for the Foxes.
“The manager, we know that he is very intense,” the Italian analysed while speaking to reporters on Friday. “They are very intense off the ball in the way that they press and the way they play. They have played all season with a line of four.
“They just played with a line of five against Wolves and QPR in the second half so we can expect them in both situations and we’ll see. But for sure the structure doesn’t modify the way that they work off the ball.”
The approach
Nothing can change in the team’s attitude, according to Maresca, who views each of the final fixtures as equally testing, though he did note the home advantage which Leicester will hold against both the Baggies and fellow promotion-chasers Southampton in the next three days.
The 44-year-old continued: “This game tomorrow will be exactly like Southampton, Preston and Blackburn, the last one. Everyone is now playing for something so it will be 100 per cent tough, but fortunately, we play at home and we’ll have the boost from our fans.
“When they help us, like in the last games against Norwich and Birmingham, you can see that you almost play with one extra player. For sure we would like to arrive at this stage more quiet, more relaxed, but we have the drama of the last games.
“In my personal opinion, the only way to manage the moment is just to be focused on what we can do to win games. I have been thinking about today’s session and how we can do things better to beat them tomorrow because if you start to think about how many games and how many points, it can become a little bit of a mess.
"All we can do is try to focus on the next one.”
Recent frustrations
Returning from away trips to Millwall and Plymouth Argyle empty-handed, there is no doubt that City hoped to have garnered a better points tally at this stage, though results elsewhere have proved favourable over the past seven days.
The former Manchester City coach added: “It is not random that we lost the last two games, Leeds in the last two games have got one point and Ipswich have two points. They are human beings, and they see that they are close and they miss some things.
“In this moment, everyone is struggling to win games. It’s normal because, in every sport, when you see yourself close, you need to maintain calmness. This is a business and we are here to win games, but we are also here to analyse and how we can improve things.
“We completely understand the frustrations of the fans. The players and us as staff are in the same way. When you analyse Millwall and Plymouth, we could do some things better, but it’s football. We create and, at the end, it’s a business. You need to win games but the performance was there.
“It’s my duty as Manager to be in charge of the process and the way the team plays. Now it’s just to take chances. Sometimes it’s because you are unlucky, sometimes you are not clinical, for many reasons. To arrive there, we are good.
“We miss many chances but now we have just four games to go and hopefully we can win enough to get promoted. The players had a meeting a few days ago between themselves. It’s just a matter of getting the job done and finishing in the right way.
“But also, you cannot think that because we lost the game, everything was wrong. For me, it was not wrong, but I think, as they said, they need to take a little bit of responsibility and finish the job.”