Enzo Maresca, manager of Leicester City, is celebrating victory during the Sky Bet Championship match between Leicester City and Birmingham City at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, on April 6, 2024. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Following their 2-1 victory over Birmingham City over the weekend, Leicester City took back the top spot in the Championship table.
Enzo Maresca’s team took advantage of the unusual losses suffered by Leeds United and Ipswich Town to surpass their automatic promotion rivals.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, a talisman, scored the first goal with a crisp strike into the bottom corner, then Jay Stansfield equalized by stopping Mads Hermansen’s clearance.
For a large portion of the second half, Leicester’s relentless offensive efforts were unable to penetrate the resolute Blues defense, and the game appeared headed for a very disappointing draw.
However, in the 87th minute, Stephy Mavididi emerged at the back post to head in the winner, igniting a frenzy of excitement at King Power Stadium.
A former Foxes winger, Matt Piper, noted something peculiar that Maresca did that helped set up the winner on the BBC Radio Leicester When Your Smiling podcast.
Matt Piper noticed an unusual thing Enzo Maresca did v Birmingham City
This season, Maresca has generally chosen to make little or no substitutes during games; nevertheless, Piper saw that Dennis Praet and Yunus Akgun both entered the game within a minute of one another.
The BBC analyst stated, “That’s why I gave the manager a lot of credit after the game because he did make that change.”
“He doesn’t usually invite Praet and Yunus, and when they did come on, I felt they were both really good.
“Praet played it out to Yunus actually but he got on the pockets.”
Akgun, who came on in the 81st minute, set up the winner with a delicious curling cross to Mavididi, who made no mistake with the finish.
Maresca has received criticism at times this season for making his substitutions too late, but he got it absolutely spot on this time.
Yunus Akgun deserves to start v Milwall
Akgun, who is on loan from Turkish giants Galatasaray, has largely struggled this term having made only seven Championship starts.
Though, his impressive cameo against Birmingham would’ve put him right in the picture ahead of City’s away clash at Millwall on Tuesday.
Maresca has acknowledged that he will be rotating his team and that he will also be considering Friday’s match against Plymouth Argyle.
In the midfield, the 23-year-old playmaker might thus be paired with Wilfred Ndidi and Harry Winks from the outset, giving him the opportunity to make an impression right away.
Dewsbury-Hall, who has started 37 of the 40 league games, might get a much-needed break before traveling to Argyle, which is about 500 miles away.
