From King Carlos to The Chosen One: How Leicester City should replace Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca’s departure to Chelsea is Fabrizio official rather than holding up a scarf plus statement official but either way, Leicester City will be planning for his replacement. We asked our writers which manager Rudkin and co should be focusing their attention on.

The Fosse Way

31 May 2024

Enzo Maresca’s departure to Chelsea is mainly Fabrizio official rather than holding up a scarf plus statement official but either way, Leicester City will be planning for his replacement. We asked our writers which manager Rudkin and co should be focusing their attention on.

Carlos 1

Matt Jedruch

Of all the realistic names to have been linked to the job, Corberan stands out for me.

He has consistently found success with limited squads and budgets, and his West Brom side did brilliantly to finish 5th in the midst of their own financial issues, ahead of many squads who were arguably stronger (Coventry, Norwich, Hull).

If we ignore his brief unsuccessful stint at Olympiacos, he worked wonders with another average Huddersfield squad, and only an unfortunate own goal held them back from promotion to the Premier League in 2022. Not only does he set his teams up well defensively (3rd best defensive record in the Championship last season), he is tactically adaptable and is not afraid to make big decisions early in games.

Personally, I want us to appoint someone who wants to be here and will take pride in managing us. I don’t think this could be said for the likes of Moyes, Potter, Cooper etc. who have been there and done it to an extent, or may be waiting for other opportunities. Corberan would be working with the most talented squad in his career to date, and I believe he would commit to a project beyond this season, which in some ways is a ‘free hit’ with the looming points deduction/financial restrictions.

My main concern with Corberan is the sense that he is more hands-off in terms of man management and off the pitch matters, which is something Maresca handled brilliantly when he joined last summer, rebuilding the squad harmony which was in tatters.

With a squad which is now more united following promotion, this may not be a huge concern in the short term. If we can reach a compensation deal with West Brom, I think he is the obvious man for the job.

Carlos 2

Harry Gregory

The helpful intel of sitting nearby a Baggies fan in the office has affected me here. His reaction across this week has gone from weary to nervous. Tactically flexible as seen when his West Brom largely dominated their games against us but has managed it under the constrains of finance. He is formerly a member of Bielsa’s staff which gives me great anticipation that his ideal is very hectic and press strong.

Next season will very much be about heart as much as head. If he can stir two squads such as Huddersfield and West Brom to overachieve, then I’d want him here too. Equally he’s not a bad fall-back if we do get relegated and he has the freedom to build a team again.

At Baggies, his biggest achievement has been getting a fanbase whom were hugely disillusioned by the state of their club and giving them something to believe in. Maresca’s best trait was encouraging and reinstating the importance of supporters. I believe Corberan can continue that.

Carlos 3

Joe Brewin

Whoever takes this job faces an almighty struggle: a hefty points deduction as a newly promoted team; uncertain finances for the transfer market; a squad that will nevertheless need plenty of work, particularly when it comes to the defence.

When the news about Maresca first broke, my first thought was Potter: proven at crafting teams that are much greater than the sum of their parts, and stylistically a fairly sensible successor. But his best work took time we simply don’t have.

So I can’t shake Corberan as the man for this job. This will be an ugly season where survival would be a triumph. First and foremost, we need a boss who can focus on giving us a chance at the back – even in a Championship-dominating season, we often looked unconvincing in that department. In the previous Premier League campaign, we were an utter embarrassment. It will inevitably require new personnel, but first and foremost we’ll need a boss whose system doesn’t expose us like a toupée in 50mph winds.

His teams don’t concede many goals and they tend to overachieve – getting Huddersfield to the play-offs in third was outstanding, and he’s proved since then that he can pull it off elsewhere too. It might not be pretty – but in reality, finding much beauty in 2024/25 feels like an unrealistic ambition from the get-go anyway.

Niko Kovač

Helen Thompson

The hipster’s choice (so I’m reliably informed). Is this a realistic choice? Not sure, but while I’d be happy with Corberan, I wanted to go a little left field as an alternative. Although Kovač’s more recent roles appear to have been with clubs who aren’t so financially precarious, his work at Eintracht Frankfurt, making the most of a more limited budget, is one of the reasons I’m looking at him.

He likes working with younger players which ties into what we expect to be the transfer policy given the financial constraints. He’s not shy in deploying fluid tactics to react to any opponent and mid-game, after a season of plan A and then plan A some more, it might be refreshing to have a plan B or even C.

Realistic or not, Kovač is currently unemployed after being sacked by Wolfsburg in March (it didn’t seem to go so well there but trying to find a manager who hasn’t failed somewhere is impossible these days). So no compensation fee, big tick there.

The Bundesliga is, for my money, one of the best leagues out there at the moment and the transition to the Premier League has been pretty successful and seemed fairly comfortable for managers as well as players. Whether the Croatian would have any interest in moving to England, let alone the Leicester job, is the biggest unknown and with no PL experience, it’s as much a gamble as other reported candidates.

Graham Potter

James Knight

Maybe this is not realistic and he’s headed for a triumphant return to Brighton, but Potter is almost certainly the most proven, best option out there.

If Potter was a player, he’d be the perfect depressed asset. So highly rated before his time at a big club, and his failure there was probably not down to him – remember all the stories about how Chelsea had so many players some of the first team squad had to get changed in the corridor?

More or less every other managerial candidate is a gamble. They either have never managed in the Premier League before, or have never really achieved anything. Potter is the perfect mix of someone we know is a good manager, who steadily improves teams, and might have a very high ceiling.

David Moyes

Iain Wright

Our next appointment feels like quite a difficult one to make. Although we’re back in the big league, the squad is nothing like what it was just a few years ago, when we genuinely were the best of the rest, and indeed better than some of the best.

In addition to that, the threat of points deductions, combined with a restriction on spending (to avoid even more points deductions), means we’re nowhere near the proposition we used to be.

This influences how I answer the question. The best candidate to my mind would be David Moyes. A Premier League hardened manager, with recent success and plenty of guile, who could hit the ground running. However, I just don’t think he’d risk a potential ‘Zombie season’ with us if the threat of deductions becomes actual double-digit deductions. He’ll be in demand for almost any other job that comes up outside the big 6, therefore I think he’ll wait.

Therefore, ruling him out, along with similar managers with his status/experience, we’re probably looking at a young coach who wants to make his name…before leaving for Chelsea next season .

I’m reluctant to pay compensation for any in-work manager, therefore Will Still, who did an good job at Reims and is now looking for a challenge (you’ll get that at LCFC for sure matey!), fits the bill as a young (31!), enthusiastic coach, has Ligue 1 experience (which we like) and has been schooled by current OH Leuven manager, Oscar Garcia.

It’s unlikely any appointment will gain immediate universal approval, but I think Still is someone we can get behind.

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2 responses to “From King Carlos to The Chosen One: How Leicester City should replace Enzo Maresca”

Ty

May 31, 2024 at 1:53 pm

My feelings about Maresca leaving have waxed and waned as his appointment has dragged on through the media. At first I was really disappointed that he would leave right on the cusp of our return to top flight football. The more I have had time to think about it, I’m not sure it was such a big loss to us. Sure, the momentum of last season is put at a standstill, and yes, we will have to spend more time now thinking about a new manager than new player acquisitions. And yet, I can’t keep shaking the suspicion that Marescaball would not have worked with a Leicester team facing a points deduction, and cash-strapped in the transfer market. Enzo did a great job energizing the team and getting it ready to play championship football. His time here should not be tarnished by an early exit. He did what he was hired to do. Perhaps his leaving is a best case scenario for all interested parties. His rigid and oftentimes blind faith in his "idea" of possession-based football didn’t always translate to easy wins in the Championship. It would have been more difficult to truly implement in the premier league with the backing he was to receive. Often times the wins that we got weren’t down to the system work but simply consequences of circumstances going our way in the game.

As articulated by many Leicester fans, we need a manager who will come in and build on the ideals established by Maresca but perhaps with more flexibility in terms of personnel and tactics. We don’t have the cash to buy and sell players quickly enough to build a team around a completely different managerial vision for winning football. For me, Maresca’s achilles heel was his inability to change when a team didn’t set up the way he predicted it would. He would often have to wait until half-time to make changes to how he wanted the team to play. He also struggled with in-match substitutions. There were times that he needed to change out tired players but simply refused to. His ideals were good ones and worked, but at times his implementation of them and his inability to adapt within a game left the team vulnerable.

So who comes next? There a lot of good reason to choose someone like Carlos Corberan. He would be a good fit, albeit perhaps expensive since he recently signed a new contract with West Brom. I’d like to argue for a name that hasn’t been mentioned at all: Cesc Fabregas. Arguably his experience in management is limited. But I was impressed by his recent video on Coaches Voice. His ideals are similar to Maresca, but with more flexibility. He’s worked with some of the greatest coaches of this era: Mourinho, Guardiola etc and he would have instant credibility with players as he’s been at the top of the game. And wouldn’t it be fun to stick it to Chelsea by appointing one of their own? Crazy I know, but Rainieri was a crazy appointment as well. Who knows. This certainly will be a fun if not stressful offseason for Leicester fans.

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Penfold

June 1, 2024 at 9:36 pm

People advocating for Moyes is all down to fear and we are supposed to be "fearless." I do not want him anywhere near this club, an absolute dinosaur!!Ruud Van Nistelrooy should be the main candidate for this role, he plays the same as Maresca and this will alleviate the team having to change styles in such a short time. Options such as Corberan and Still are good possibilities and either coming to LCFC would be welcomed.Will Still has done a great job, but I think he has stagnated and needed new pastures to develop. We all know what Corberan brings, it does not excite me, but he may be a revelation with a better squad of players. There is no point looking at the points deduction as a negative, it isn’t. We need to go into the season knowing that a 12-point deficit can be overcome with 36 games ahead. The amount of points needed to stay up has reduced significantly, we should also not look to contest the deduction as a matter of principle. We need to bring some integrity back into the game and I would welcome us being the club to set some kind of standards for this league. In Rugby Union, you contest a citation at the risk that if the appeal is not upheld, the original ban will be increased. Clubs then do not fight the ban, unless they find it to be so egregious that it demands them to contest it. We need that in football!! Ballaque’s previous comment that Maresca found the people he had to work with to be unprofessional has not received as much traction, as it should. It was always going to be the issue where Maresca would be asking things from Rudkin which he knows nothing about. This for me was the opportunity for Khun Top to see we are hampered by Rudkin, and ask him to stand down. That quite clearly did not happen. Let us see if the hierarchy has the brains to bring in Van Nistelrooy??

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