During King Power Stadium on Matchday 20 of the Sky Bet Championship, Maresca’s team will square off against the Pilgrims. Speaking during his news conference from Seagrave, City’s manager shared some pre-match reflections.…
Plymouth’s threats
Steven Schumacher’s side have produced some excellent performances back at Home Park and find themselves in a pack of mid-table teams as the campaign approaches the half-way point. Having completed his analysis, Maresca is under no illusions about what City will be facing.
“It’s a very complicated team,” the Italian began. “I think they are the second-best Championship team after Leeds in terms of counter attacking, so we need to be careful. Especially when we have the ball, they are dangerous and we need to control the tempo of the ball.
“They have very good players like [Morgan] Whittaker. He’s a very good winger, dangerous on the ball and they are doing a fantastic job since getting promoted. When you face a team that are dangerous when they have the ball, you have to move in one way.
“But when they are dangerous when we have the ball, we probably need to control and keep the ball in the best way we can. In the moment that they are able to recover the ball, we need to avoid the transition.”
Returning home
The busy festive schedule brings a host of games – with three coming on Filbert Way before Christmas. Using that to City’s advantage could be crucial, Maresca believes, as they enter a pivotal point of this campaign.
“I think that we are going to start a very important moment of the season tomorrow,” the 43-year-old explained. “Because we have two games at home, we need our fans 100 per cent to be with us, behind us and pushing the team to try and win together. It’s an important game.
“The main reason for me is that the month of December is tricky for many reasons. If you are able to be consistent it’s important. Also, Christmas is there, you can be a little bit distracted for many reasons. Also because of the amount of games, you can get injuries to players. It’s tricky.
“I’m focused on tomorrow’s game. We need to win and we are going to try and win.”
Nelson’s new contract
The Club announced a new contract for Ben Nelson on Friday, keeping the young defender – who made his senior debut earlier this term – at the Football Club until 2027.
Maresca had nothing but praise for the pathway of developing players through Leicester’s Academy, with centre-back Nelson just one of those making their way in the game. First Team opportunities have also been handed to several other Under-21s players.
He commented: “Ben has a very good profile, he’s from the Academy and he’s still very young. He’s improving and we’re happy to continue with him. With young players we need to give them the right amount of time.
“We have also Will Alves, Wanya [Marçal], Kasey McAteer – these kind of players are all young, from the Academy and doing well. For the Club and for the fans it’s something we need to be proud of.
“I want all of them focused on this season and our target. We’ll see in February or March where we are. The most important thing now is to be focused in the way we are doing and this is the only thing I’m worried about today.”
Leave a Reply