Nine ways Enzo Maresca has Leicester City on their way back to the Premier League

EFL pundit Gab Sutton has his say on the impact Enzo Maresca has had since joining Leicester City, who have enjoyed a superb start to the new Championship season.

1. Investment in Experience

After Leicester sold James Maddison for £40m, and Harvey Barnes for £38m as well as receiving a hefty parachute payment package, they could afford to be a little extravagant in the market.

The signings of Conor Coady for £7.5m, and Harry Winks for £9m, were questioned in some quarters, seeing as City are highly unlikely to sell either player, 30 and 27 respectively, for a fee that matches what they’ve just paid.

Coady hasn’t yet played a league game due to injury, and the form of others, but his quality, experience and leadership should prove invaluable over the course of the season, especially in the run-in.

Winks, meanwhile, has already proved an outstanding acquisition, and exactly what City needed to launch their bid for an instant return.

Southampton, for comparison, signed Shea Charles for £10.5m, and while the 19-year-old has a way higher sell-on value, he’d only previously played 27 minutes of professional football - that was in Manchester City’s 1-0 loss at Brentford on the final day of the season, when they had already won the title and were preparing for FA Cup and Champions League Finals in subsequent weeks.

As such, Charles has a propensity to make mistakes, whereas Winks for Leicester has been a beacon of reliability, completing 95% of his passes this season, the second-highest rate in the Championship, whilst proving unflappable under pressure.

Leicester build-up in their own half in a 3-2 shape, which is intended to spread the pitch as wide as possible, but Winks is so often the go-to because he’s so reliable: in September’s 2-0 win at a high-pressing Norwich side, for instance, he completed 83 passes with a 100% success rate.

That’s not to say that investing in youth isn’t admirable, but in the most important areas of the pitch – which for Maresca’s style is arguably the #6 role – having a go-to performer is a huge plus.

2. Promoting Youth

On the flip side to the above, Enzo Maresca has shown a willingness to be brave with youth in other areas, even in a squad glittering with star quality.

20-year-old former Portugal Under-20s prospect Wanya Marçal-Madivadua has started two league games so far, as well as one in the EFL Cup in a wide forward role, but the real breakout star has been Kasey McAteer.

The 21-year-old didn’t exactly set the world alight in his 2022-23 loan spells at League One Forest Green, nor League Two AFC Wimbledon, which suggests Maresca came into Leicester with an open mind, and that McAteer has trained brilliantly as well as impressing in pre-season.

The drop to the Championship has undoubtedly helped the wide forward, as well as the fact the arrivals of Yunus Akgün and Abdul Fatawu didn’t happen until late August, so Maresca was short on options for the start of the season which is what created that window.

McAteer, though, has grabbed that opportunity with both hands, on both sides: he started four league games as a right-sided forward and two on the left, and because Maresca likes his central forward to drop into a number 10 position, something Kelechi Iheanacho does very well in linking play, the wide forwards are key to penetration.

In McAteer’s case, though, when he’s played on the right he’s required an even greater level of stamina than Stephy Mavididi on the left. 

Mavididi has been such a danger with his direct runs, but he’s benefited from the left centre-back of the defensive trio - Callum Doyle, or James Justin now the latter is injured - staying high and wide, freeing up the Frenchman to be an inside forward.

McAteer, by contrast, has had to split in-possession right wing-back duties with midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, because Wout Faes’ position on the right is narrower and deeper than Doyle’s is on the left, but he’s been able to deliver that role which has been huge in making the system work.

He’s a powerful runner with bags of enthusiasm, and he’s already scored this season off either foot, and with his head.

There would have been the danger, had Leicester gone with a 23-man squad full to the brim proven, Premier League quality internationals in the late 20s and early 30s age demographic, that they might have missed that injection of youthful exuberance that every team needs.

Leicester have it in McAteer, and Maresca deserves credit for giving him that chance.

3. Hamza Choudhury’s Attitude

Attitude is a huge part of what got McAteer in this Leicester side, and it’s the same for Hamza Choudhury, although in his case he’s already played 53 Premier League games.

Back in April 2016, Choudhury put in one of the best first halves of football from a pure defensive midfielder this writer has ever seen in League One, winning an abnormal number of tackles in Burton’s 2-1 penultimate weekend victory over Gillingham, which meant a goalless draw at Doncaster the following week would be enough to secure them a historic promotion.

Since that performance, it had been clear Leicester’s destroyer was bound for big things, and he subsequently broke into their first-team squad two years later, before helping them challenge for Champions League qualification two years running and win the FA Cup in 2021.

Choudhury is clearly a mentality monster with a relentless attitude, because despite being no more than fine technically, he’s forced his way into Brendan Rodgers and Maresca sides.

The 25-year-old signed a new four-year contract on the morning of last Wednesday’s EFL Cup 3-1 defeat at Anfield, where he played, before being handed the captain’s armband after coming off the bench in the 4-1 league win at Blackburn.

Choudhury has won 3.2 successful tackles per 90, the fourth-most in the Championship – incredible when considering he’s playing in the team that averages 60.9% possession, the second-most behind only Southampton – and Maresca said he can do the same job as Ricardo Pereira. Speaking of which…

4. The Inverted Full-Back

Before this season, it’s been possible to ascribe a blanket formation to each Championship team, even if there are specific nuances to how positions change between different phases.

In Leicester’s case, however, it’s almost impossible, because Pereira acts as a conventional right-back in a four out of possession, and a central midfielder in.

When City turn the ball over, the back-four becomes a back-three, as right wing-back duties are split 50-50 between Wilfred Ndidi and the right-sided forward – Akgün, Fatawu or McAteer.

Pereira’s experience in playing this niche role internationally with Portugal has been a huge advantage, and Championship sides aren’t used to facing the tactical oddity, and therefore don’t know how to combat it.

Opposing sides put a lot of focus on stopping Winks in the first phases, but this can free up space for Pereira to ghost into the middle third unchartered and create from there.

5. The Sweeper Keeper

Maresca had been very open in saying Mads Hermansen had been his number one target, the most important signing of the summer, because of the way the Brøndby IF recruit plays.

Not only is Hermansen an excellent distributor, he is brave and acts like an outfielder at times – of his 445 touches so far this season, 169 (38%) have come outside the penalty area.

This has allowed the back-three of Faes, Jannik Vestergaard and Doyle or Justin to squeeze up the pitch, without worrying about the chasm between themselves and the goalkeeper, which has been crucial to Leicester implementing their style.

6. Style Established

It would be inaccurate to say that Leicester have dominated their games this season, to the extent champions Burnley did last year, and they’ve not put anyone to the sword like Fulham could the year before.

City have needed their immense squad depth to change games that weren’t going their way, especially in August’s wins over Coventry, Huddersfield, Cardiff and Rotherham, which all came by a one-goal margin through a late winner in a game that could have gone either way.

However, they’ve been able to establish a clear style of play right from the get-go which, coupled with the individual quality that means their best five-minute spells in games tend to get rewarded, has made them incredibly dangerous opposition.

There’s more to come from the Foxes, and that’s ominous for the rest of the league.

7. Vestergaard’s Vivacity 

One of the reasons why Leicester have been able to grind out results in narrow-margined encounters is because they have a dominant centre-back, who can head balls out of the box at will.

6’6”, Jannik Vestergaard has won 2.7 aerial duels per game, and his return in that metric would be higher if he was playing in a team that doesn’t control possession like Leicester do.

The Dane is protected from one-on-one scenarios by operating between Faes and Doyle or Justin, with the former positioned deep and narrow and the latter having strong recovery pace, as well as the defensive diligence of Ndidi or Choudhury in midfield.

Plus, his ball-playing is deceptively refined, and the 31-year-old can pick out a nice diagonal to McAteer or Mavididi on the flank, when the central areas are too congested.

8. Rotation Policy 

Across eight league matches since the opening day, Maresca has made 23 changes to his starting line-ups, 2.9 per game.

In some cases, alterations have been forced upon him, but a sequence of three changes for the 4-1 win at Southampton, six for the 2-0 victory at Norwich, and five for the 1-0 triumph over Bristol City suggests he’s keen to manage the congested fixture periods wisely.

Leicester’s superior squad depth has been a significant advantage in navigating those parts of the season smoothly, but credit must be given to Maresca for getting his advanced ideas across to the whole squad, so different players can come in and fill a niche role when required.

The sweeper keeper remit, the inverted right-back, the left centre-back, right-sided midfielder and right forward are all positions that require a very particular skillset, and in each of them, players who aren’t the regular first choice have been able to carry them out seamlessly.

That is a feather in Maresca’s cap when it comes to coaching, and conveying nuanced tactical ideas that are boiled down in a way simplistic enough for players to understand.

9. Man-For-Man Pressing

Leicester press with a 4-2 structure, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall pushing up top with Vardy or Iheanacho, then the wide forwards pinning the opposing full-backs into their defensive third, and Ndidi sometimes joining in.

The setup can leave the Foxes vulnerable, sometimes, to balls in behind, if opposing teams are able to isolate Vestergaard in a one-on-one situation.

Generally, though, this can’t be done with an old-fashioned long ball, because City operate with a tight back-four out-of-possession, meaning Vestergaard has plenty of protection.

As such, breaking Leicester’s press has required a level of individual quality in defensive areas that not many Championship sides have, while teams that have tried to play out like Southampton have struggled to live with it.

If Leicester were to get promoted, they’ll have new challenges in making their pressing game work because Premier League sides have more skilful operators in first phases, but for now it’s hard to see too much in their way.

Maresca has got the Foxes on the hunt for an instant return – a fourth league title of the 21st century could be in store…