Analysis of Leicester City’s 3-1 victory over Swansea, looking at a seventh straight victory, the response to going behind, Stephy Mavididi’s performance and more
Enzo Maresca can’t admit it, but he has now hinted at it: Leicester City are “destroying” the Championship.
Maresca does not like promotion talk. To consider City’s return to the Premier League a foregone conclusion – as many of his rival managers have said they do – would allow complacency to creep in, to let standards slip, and to see the team fall short of their ultimate target.
When it comes to the league table, the City boss deals in facts only. It is October and his team have 33 points. Both in time and the number of wins required, promotion is a long way off. Maresca will be the last person in the country to discuss it.
Naturally, because they were a relegated side who had a revamp with a manager who emerged from under Pep Guardiola’s wing, comparisons have been made between City and last season’s Championship winners Burnley. Swansea boss Michael Duff was the latest to mention them in the same breath, saying City were better than Vincent Kompany’s side.
At his pre-match press conference, Maresca very matter-of-factly asked how his team could be better if they, at the time, had 71 fewer points than the 101 the Clarets earned last term. When it was brought up after City’s 3-1 win over Swansea, he took a similar view, but also mentioned that Burnley had “destroyed” the Championship last season.
He said: “I don’t think we are better than Burnley to be honest. Because they destroyed the Championship last year with 101 points. In this moment, we still need 70 more points to go a little bit more than them. It’s disrespect to talk about us and not Burnley.
“We are happy because everything is working well. This is the journey that we start and the direction is correct. But we don’t know if in the second half (of the season), we slump. We don’t know. It’s football. Many things can happen. The only thing we can control is the way we want to play. The results depend on many details.”
But if Burnley destroyed the Championship last season, what are City currently doing? At the rate they are collecting points, they will finish on 126, way above what the Clarets achieved and comfortably the best season any side has ever enjoyed. Does that not mean, at the very least, City are in the process of destroying this division?
Because this was yet another rampant display where City’s structure, style, and quality was far too much for their opponent to cope with. It was the fourth time this season that City’s expected goals figure at least 2.0 above their opponent’s, something Burnley managed only five times in the whole of last term. Maresca must know that his team has the potential to do something extraordinary.
But to do it, he can’t think about it. For his players, it’s much the same. So it’s left for the fans to do the revelling. Maresca is all for that, saying they deserve it after the sadness of relegation last term.
They’re the ones who can get giddy at what they’re witnessing. They’re the ones who can agree with Michael Duff, that City are better than Burnley. They’re the ones who can dream of record points totals.
City give glimpse of next level
Maresca also does not discuss the table and matters of promotion because his philosophy is so rooted in how the team play. Performances and not results are his focus. He was especially pleased that his team continued to play their way in spite of falling behind for the first time in eight Championship matches. But that actually downplays how well City responded to Matt Grimes’ goal.
Perhaps why there is such excitement this season is because it has felt that City are playing in third gear, partly because they are a work in progress and partly because they have not needed to be any better than that to claim three points. But having suffered a setback, something more was required, and boy did City show it.
It was a glimpse of how good they can be at their very best. In the adversity of going behind, City raised the intensity tenfold, zipping passes with more purpose, pressing harder than ever before – they won 15 tackles in the middle and attacking thirds, more than in any other game this season – making quicker and more regular off-the-ball runs to disrupt Swansea’s defence. They created a hatful of chances and it was a surprise it took them until Jannik Vestergaard’s bundled goal to get back on level terms.
When they really need to, this team can push themselves even further. They are already learning not to lose heart when they suffer setbacks, and instead kick it up a notch. That’s what is so exciting, that they are still some way from reaching their ceiling.
Mavididi responds to Maresca request as wingers threaten
City don’t just have the potential to improve as a team, but as individuals too. A two-week international break gave Maresca a rare opportunity to work closely with his players, and the results of the intricate coaching and analysis were on display on Saturday.
One of the things City have worked on over the past fortnight is their wingers’ ability to penetrate in behind and beat their full-backs. Tiny details were observed to try to give them the edge, and work was done on which foot to control the ball with so that it might give them a half-second advantage to get by their man.
Ultimately, it’s about the wingers getting themselves and the ball into more threatening positions. They did just that at Swansea. There were four times where Stephy Mavididi – who has been asked by Maresca to raise his levels – dribbled into the Swansea box, while he provided a total of seven passes and crosses to team-mates in the area. On both counts, those were his best tallies of the season.
City have to keep evolving and every area has to work well if they are to keep up this run. With teams realising how influential Harry Winks and Ricardo Pereira are in the middle of the pitch, there is a greater focus from the opposition in trying to shut them down. But that means there is space for others to exploit.
At Swansea, it was out wide, and the performance of the wingers meant City were still dangerous in attack even though they were restricted in what they could do through the middle. The all-important second goal that put City in front came from the left, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall making a run to support Mavididi and then finding Abdul Fatawu, who learned from a previous Maresca instruction that he needs to be in the right place to get on the end of back-post crosses.
If Mavididi and Fatawu keep causing problems, they might become the focus of opposition attention. But then players in a different area of the team should be ready to step up. Maresca wants to make his side one that can’t be stopped, no matter how diligent the opposition are in their analysis and organisation.
Maresca and wins breed ‘special’ atmosphere
There have been a few occasions this season where Maresca has implied that he really didn’t like being on the bench when he was a player. He’s spoken frequently of players being desperate to start, and often delays the announcement of his selection to just a few hours before kick-off because he doesn’t want those who know they’re on the bench to lower their standards on the final day of training.
He says it’s normal for players to be unhappy when they’re not in the starting 11. So he was pleasantly surprised when it was his substitutes delivering the pre-match encouragement at Swansea. It’s a sign of how “special” the team is, he says, that those on the bench are buoyant.
It’s already been seen how having a good squad is helping City, with Maresca able to rotate and avoid the risk of injuries. Twenty-two different players have started for City in the Championship, with only Sheffield Wednesday fielding more.
It seems that rotation is having another effect too. It’s making every player feel like they are truly part of the team, and not on the fringes. It can be dangerous to have a big squad but not include everyone, as having too many players who feel they are too far away from game-time can lead to negativity that impacts the whole group. At City, it seems the spread of minutes and the winning feeling is fostering a great atmosphere.
One 9-0 win from the record
It’s well-established that City have enjoyed the best-ever start to a Championship season, but that only covers around two decades of football. You need to look back a further century to get the full picture
A total of 33 points (if wins are worth three points) and a goal difference of +19 from the opening 12 games ranks as the fifth-best in the history of the second tier with Tottenham (1919-20), Preston (1903-04), Fulham (2000-01), and Bury (1894-95) the only teams that can top it.
If City win on Tuesday night against Sunderland, it could become the best second-tier start of all time. They would have to win 9-0 to overtake Bury’s record of 36 points and a goal difference +27 in 1894-95, so it’s extremely unlikely, but, as everybody in Leicester knows, not impossible.
But while records are nice, promotion is the ultimate aim. In a good omen, every team that has won 11 of their first 12 second-tier matches has gone on to finish as champions. Just don’t tell Maresca that. He’s not interested for now.
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