Enzo Maresca: Leicester City boss 'not scared' about fresh start with Foxes (2024)

Enzo Maresca is not someone who scares easily.

As a teenager, with no grasp of the English language, he chose to start his professional playing career in the Midlands with West Brom. He then earned himself a place in a Juventus dressing room, alongside footballing greats Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro del Piero, on his return to Italy.

More than two decades later, the 43-year-old chose to leave Pep Guardiola's coaching staff at Manchester City after they won the Treble, to take on the job of trying to return Leicester City to the Premier League.

"I'm not nervous or scared to start new things," Maresca told BBC East Midlands Today.

"When I was 18 I said I will move from Italy to England, it was something new and I did not speak a word of English. And then from there I come back to Italy with a big club, the best club in Italy in Juventus.

"Leicester are a big club, an important club.

"I know we are Leicester and everyone is talking about the Premier League. I know, being here, it's normal and that target is there."

For his first two months as Foxes boss Maresca lived at the club's training base in north Leicestershire, where he got "a feel" for the job he inherited.

"I like to be at the place I work to get the sensation," he said. "I'm quite ambitious."

Only one side - Blackburn - has gone from Premier League champions to relegation to the Championship quicker than the Foxes.

Seven years after winning the English crown, and just two years after lifting the FA Cup, Leicester tumbled back to the second division for the first time in a decade.

Their descent last season came as Maresca helped plot domestic and European glory at Manchester City, a club he returned to just a year earlier after a 180-day spell in Italy's second tier as Parma manager.

When asked if it was a difficult decision to leave City just six days after they won the Champions League final against Inter Milan, Maresca replied: "No, because my idea was always to start for myself.

"They knew already there that with the right chance, with the right club, I was going to leave. Leicester is the perfect one.

"My first target was to join a club that would allow me to work the way I want to work, and from day one when I met the club we were agreed in the way they want to play and the way I want to play."

And so 'Maresca-ball' - defined by patient, deliberate and possession-based build-up play - has dawned at the King Power Stadium.

The best example of what he wants from his side came in their 4-1 win at Southampton, with goalkeeper Mads Hermansen starting a 33-pass move that ended with Wilfred Ndidi coolly finishing the Foxes' third goal of the night.

This was also a game in which Jamie Vardy scored after just 21 seconds and Stephy Mavididi ran from deep inside his own box for a fine solo strike.

It showed that Leicester can do it quickly, slowly and even spectacularly.

The win against a Saints side that were relegated alongside Leicester last season was their most comprehensive win to date, with the Foxes second in the table with six wins from seven.

"Already it's happened in the five or six games, more than 30 passes, but in the end we didn't score so people don't realise," Maresca said. "When you score it's normal that the people can see so clearly.

"I was happy the other day because the team is doing what we want and they are enjoying it."

Such a well-crafted goal, coming from a side managed by a man who worked under Guardiola, is enough to see Maresca's approach compared to that of his former boss.

The Italian is quick to smile when talking of the influence the Spaniard has had on him - but he speaks the same way of playing under Carlo Ancelotti and Marcello Lippi when at Juve, working with Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham and playing alongside Antonio Conte.

"I have been lucky learning from many managers, like Ancelotti, Lippi, Manuel Pellegrini, so you can take things and in the end you make your own ideas," Maresca said.

"Because I was at City you cannot think to try to copy from Pep. You can learn a lot every day, many things, but to copy it is very difficult because he is so good - the number one, a genius - and you cannot think in the way he is thinking."

Maresca's approach has so far got results and has the Foxes flying high.

He also knows that not all the Foxes faithful will be convinced by what he is trying to do - yet.

Asked if he had a message for Leicester supporters, Maresca said: "To be patient, because I can understand that sometimes they prefer to be more straight, direct and long ball. But it is not the way we want to play.

"Sometimes if we see that playing direct we can create chances and be dangerous, then yes. But it's not our identity and not our style, so the only thing I can say is make an effort to understand the way we want to play and to continue with that. because we need them.

"And for sure if they are patient we are going to reach our target."

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