LEICESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 04: Leicester City Manager Enzo Maresca during the Leicester City press conference at Leicester City Training Ground, Seagrave on August 04, 2023 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Enzo Maresca, the manager of Leicester City, comments on Middlesbrough’s 2-1 victory over his team.
Although Enzo Maresca acknowledged that his Leicester City team was taken off guard by Middlesbrough’s formation change, he believed that his team’s lackluster finishing was the main cause of their loss.
The three-man defense that Michael Carrick had deployed against Aston Villa in the FA Cup and against Chelsea in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final set up his team. Once more, it had the desired effect, as Boro defeated the league leaders to snap a four-game losing streak.
Thanks to goals from Finn Azaz and Sammy Silvera, Boro won their second straight match against the Foxes this season. Despite the setback, the Foxes are still nine points ahead of the Championship leaders. This was only Leicester’s second league loss of the season, and the Italian head coach saw three reasons for it at King Power Stadium.
“Probably it’s one of those days where you have to drop points,” Maresca said. “Between the first half and second half, we created many chances. Before their goal, we created many chances we missed. At the end, it’s football.
“We conceded the second goal an easy way from our throw-in, but we were there until the end. We pushed until the end, we tried until the end and this is the most important thing.
They have only previously faced us (in their current form) in the Carabao against Chelsea. Thus, we anticipated a different outcome. But we still created a lot of opportunities even when we played differently. We attempted to modify and adapt. After giving up the first goal, we most likely lost our equilibrium a little, allowing some counterattacks that we should have been able to stop.
“An additional issue is that we communicated with Abdul, Stephy, Kiernan, Ricky, Dennis, and it’s likely that we overlooked the final pass. We had a lot of opportunities that we passed up, even with these kinds of things that we need to do better at.
