Leicester City star reveals how Guardiola’s influence is being felt
Leicester City’s Enzo Maresca stepped away from Pep Guardiola’s right hand to join the table-topping Foxes last summer
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall admits it took him and his Leicester City colleagues a bit of time to get used to Enzo Maresca’s Pep Guardiola-inspired approach – but feels the Championship league leaders have reaped plentiful rewards from the Italian’s management.
A former Manchester City youth coach turned assistant to Guardiola, Maresca arrived at the King Power Stadium as Dean Smith’s replacement last summer following the club’s relegation from the Premier League.
Leicester have sat top of the Championship for much of the campaign, although a decidedly dodgy patch of form over the past two months has meant they have lost the commanding lead they once held over Ipswich Town and Leeds United and have had to scrap to get back of the pile having briefly fallen down to third.
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The latest edition of FourFourTwo magazine named 12-goal 13-assist Dewsbury-Hall as the best player in the EFL this month, but he admitted to FFT that all knew about Maresca was ‘only that he was Pep Guardiola’s assistant’.
He added: “I immediately thought, ‘He must be top-level, because Pep isn’t the sort of guy to appoint anyone as his right-hand man’.
“I wondered if he’d adapt styles from Pep or bring his own – he’s done a bit of both. Obviously he’s learned from one of the greatest managers ever, but he’s also implemented his own methods. He’s first class. At times he makes it look easy, the way we play, and it’s not.”
Maresca has taken a cue from Guardiola’s inverted full-backs this season, asking a wide defender to step into central midfield to allow an extra man to stop into the front line.
