Enzo Maresca has Leicester purring ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash with Liverpool… and the ex-Man City assistant is no stranger to facing Jurgen Klopp on the touchline

• Leicester head into the Liverpool clash at the top of the Championship table 
• Enzo Maresca used to watch Pep Guardiola go head-to-head with Jurgen Klopp
• Mail Sport’s new WhatsApp Channel: Get the breaking news and exclusives here 

Some of Enzo Maresca’s fondest memories of his time at Manchester City were of his ringside seat for the duels between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. On Wednesday night at Anfield, he will be the man trying to outwit Liverpool’s German boss.

He has been at Leicester barely three months but Maresca’s first management job in English football could not have gone much better. Picking up a club who had suffered a shock relegation from the Premier League was never going to be easy and while tougher times lie ahead, Maresca has Leicester top of the Championship after winning seven of their opening eight matches.

‘The mood was not good when I arrived in June,’ recalled Maresca, who left his job as part of Guardiola’s coaching staff to take the top job at Leicester – six days after City completed the Treble by beating Inter Milan in the Champions League Final.

‘Many players were leaving, and those who were staying had just been relegated so for sure, the mood was not perfect. It was about focusing on training, the way we were going to play – that was my only concern.’

Maresca said in his early media appearances that he had not been set the specific task of winning immediate promotion – but this was surely just a way to remove pressure from himself and his players. Because even if those words were not uttered directly, Leicester’s owners expect to be in the Premier League again next season and Maresca has been hired to deliver just that. Nobody knows that better than he does.

Enzo Maresca’s Leicester are top of the Championship ahead of Wednesday’s clash at Anfield 

The in-form Foxes will take on Liverpool (above) in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday evening

Maresca has restored a feel-good factor at the King Power after Leicester’s relegation last term

From the start, he has been decisive. Last summer, the saga of Wesley Fofana’s move to Chelsea disrupted the Foxes’ preparations and Maresca made it clear that he wanted no repeat with James Maddison or Harvey Barnes. Sure enough, Maddison joined Tottenham for £40million on June 29, with Barnes moving to Newcastle for £38m on July 24.

The Italian, who played for Juventus and Sevilla without ever winning a senior international cap, is a self-confessed Guardiola disciple and is committed to using his mentor’s ideas in the Championship. This could have gone badly yet in the first week of pre-season, players were delivering glowing reports about their new boss.

Training will usually last about an hour, followed by a game of up to 11-a-side. Players quickly noticed that the exercises Maresca had conducted in the session would prove useful in the practice match. Sometimes training can feel abstract, or even pointless. So far with Maresca, this has never been the case.

One of the most delicate challenges for any Leicester manager is to handle Jamie Vardy, surely the greatest player in the club’s history. At 36, Vardy is being asked to perform a new role: instead of staying close his marker and bursting into space anticipating a pass, Vardy is now required to drop deep and link play.

Maresca (not pictured) previously had ringside seats to the battles between Pep Guardiola (right) and Jurgen Klopp (left) on the touchline during his time as an assistant at the Etihad

Your browser does not support iframes.

Tottenham’s James Maddison was among the stars to leave Leicester in the summer window

The role comes more naturally to fellow forward Kelechi Iheanacho but it is a credit to both Vardy and Maresca that the former England star is beginning to find his stride. After going four games without a goal, Vardy has three in his last five.

‘I am very happy with both of them,’ said Maresca. ‘I know how important they are. I know when Jamie plays, probably Kelechi is not the happiest player in the world, and vice-versa.

‘But this is good because they compete. When Jamie plays he has been fantastic and it’s the same with Kelechi. Kelechi scored two games ago against Norwich and Jamie scored in the following game against Bristol City.

‘I’ve said many times that if you want to compete, we need those kinds of players. When we need them, they are ready and they can help us.’

Like any inexperienced manager, Maresca is learning on the job but his treatment of players has been promising. When a player is left out, he will have the decision explained in detail – usually with reference to the opposition’s tactical plan – and informed when he is likely to be brought on from the bench.

Jamie Vardy has rediscovered his goal scoring touch since dropping to the Championship

Vardy was revitalised by Dean Smith at the end of last season after growing disillusioned under Brendan Rodgers and Maresca has kept him happy. Rodgers sent Jannik Vestergaard to train alone and the Dane said publicly he wanted to leave Leicester in the summer. Fast forward a couple of months and Vestergaard is a mainstay of Maresca’s defence, after taking his chance when Conor Coady was injured.

Local boy Hamza Choudhury was struggling to see a future at Leicester when he returned from a loan spell at Watford. At Norwich last week, Maresca handed Choudhury the armband and Leicester won 2-0.

Maresca does long hours – 7am starts and 7pm finishes are the norm – and studies opponents and fellow bosses relentlessly. Yet the 43-year-old realises that the ultra-intense management style is not for everyone. He believes it is important to have a light-hearted rapport with his players. It is not enough simply to do the work. The players should enjoy it, too.

That is certainly the case right now. Even though he is a novice, Maresca has plenty of cards is his favour, not least one of the outstanding squads in the history of the Championship. So far, though, he is playing them like an old hand.

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Source: Read Full Article