7 pleas for Enzo Maresca from Leicester City fans
We asked our writers what they would ask Enzo Maresca to focus on if they had the chance. Everyone had different things to say… and different ways of saying them.
Be bold!
This might be because I'm writing this after the end of the Ashes Test and I've been indoctrinated by Bazball, but my advice is simple: be bold.
There's a lot to do. He's tasked not only with promotion but with completely rebuilding the club's identity. Half measures aren't going to get it done. If the squad you've inherited has the wrong mentality or can't play the right way (spoiler: they do and they can't), terminate all their contracts. If the fitness coach can't keep a team fit enough to play how you want, hang him at dawn. If the rest of the coaches are too matey with the players and accepting mediocrity, fire them into the sun as well.
If we have to break a few eggs and lose a few games to get where we need to be, that's fine. But bring us something to buy into, something new and exciting, and smash everything in the way to make it successful. You have carte blanche to turn this around, don't waste it.
James Knight
Bring the passion!
FIGHT AND WIN.
Leicester fans like passion and hate bollocks.
Build a team that fans believe care and you're in. I've fallen out of love with Leicester City and I believe you're the man to bring it back.
Viva Enzo.
Becky Taylor
Keep it up!
This might sound like a pathetic response to a very good question, but honestly? I’ve only got “keep it up” in my head.
The rhetoric from his first interview was music to our ears. We came back last summer to Brendan Rodgers’ negative bleating; Maresca has immediately proved a breath of fresh air in his place, outlining his expectations and delivering a perfectly frank line about our situation to the squad.
I say he should keep it up because he’ll need to – this is a summer of huge change for the club and it might not go swimmingly from the very beginning. If he can at least do and say the right things from the off, fans will be far more patient if they need to be. Positive sentiment from the stands will surely go a long way to helping him succeed in his first few months.
Joe Brewin
Fix the defence!
One of the main ways Leicester City have come undone over the past few years, especially whenever the pressure has been ratcheted up, is a grim determination to play possession football when we haven’t had the personnel to do it.
I’m sick of seeing our centre backs knock it around, give it away and concede the first goal with the opposition’s first attack. Our absolute commitment to conceding the first goal in practically every game since the World Cup would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so soul-destroying.
There’s been a lot of talk of adopting the Manchester City style and I’ve loved watching Pep Guardiola’s style of football since the Barcelona side of 2008/09, but he’s had the odd season when his teams have been too brittle at the back. Thankfully, the past season saw a steel and strength throughout the treble-winners’ back line and that gives me hope you won’t be neglecting the defence, Enzo.
David Bevan
Fight to the end!
Enzo, please give us a team that's worth watching right to the last second of a game!
The Leicester way has always been ‘Foxes Never Quit’. You can argue all day and night as to whether that was the case last season, consciously or subconsciously. But what you can't argue about are some pretty damning facts.
Last season, when losing at half time, we only picked up two points. Two points! Two solitary equalisers (at Brentford and Leeds).
Think about how much of our lives have been wasted in forlorn hope of something happening! It's been over two years since we came back to win a league game when losing at half time: Brighton away in March 2021.
When was the last time we turned one point into three with a late winner? Burnley away in March 2022.
We've been so passive, naive almost, as lovely old Leicester let the opposition run down the clock. This mentality as a soft touch, accepting our fate, has to change.
All the way through my time as a fan, through Little, O'Neill, Pearson, Ranieri and (for the first two years) Rodgers, Foxes didn't quit and you definitely needed to watch until the last second. I'd like that back please, Enzo.
Iain Wright
Sort out the Academy!
Once our pride and joy - international breaks saw kids of all ages going off to represent their countries - now, viewed from distance at least, a warehouse of mediocrity.
Players coming through to prominence too late in their careers, loan players watching League Two games from the bench, contracts for players to make their mark (just about) in League One, no contract for a Europa League man of the match, no centre backs to help solve a semi-permanent defensive crisis.
Where once, in previous dark days, our young players offered hope for the future, they’re now just another reason to despair.
Andrew Smith
Cut out the injuries!
Enzo’s focus should start at the plushest training ground in the Championship and zero in on the reasons why we have become "Sicknote" City with an endless string of injuries that have hampered the team.
Injuries are an unfortunate consequence of elite sport where the athlete pushes their body to the limit. However, having a support structure in place to prevent the likelihood of such injuries is a building block to success. It is no surprise that the 2015/16 season had no major injuries threatening to 'burst the bubble'. The team have yet to properly replace Dave Rennie, the Head of Physiotherapy for 20 years who was given his P45 in 2020, and this should be a priority for Maresca.
Of course, football is a contact sport and some injuries are unavoidable - look at Wesley Fofana against Villareal. Yet the majority of Leicester's injuries have been soft tissue and have stunted the progression of players. Injuries to the squad have also forced players to be played out of position and hasty signings to be made.
Once we have a clear indication of Enzo Maresca's style of play and the squad formed to put these tactics into action we must have a fit and healthy squad which can make a sustained bid to get back into the Premier League.
Adam Hodges
