ENZO MARESCA learned from the best at Manchester City.
And now he is using that experience to guide Leicester City back to the Premier League.
GettyEnzo Maresca was appointed as Leicester manager in June and has since led the Foxes to the top of the Championship table[/caption]
EPAMaresca was Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Man City[/caption]
Maresca, 43, took charge of the Foxes in June – shortly after they were relegated from England’s top tier.
Despite losing key players such as James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, the Italian has completely transformed the squad and turned them into Championship trailblazers.
Stoke manager Alex Neil has even suggested that his Leicester team will go down as “one of the best Championship sides of all time”.
The Foxes are currently leading the table with 30 points from 11 games.
Ipswich Town are hot on their heels with 28, but there is a huge gulf between the top two teams and those that follow.
But how did Maresca transform Leicester? The former Man City assistant is convinced that his work ethic has been a huge factor in his success so far.
Until recently he had regularly been sleeping at Leicester’s Seagrave base.
Speaking to the Daily Mail earlier this year, he said: “There is no limit to my team.
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“The most important thing is the ‘idea’, to show we know what we are doing.”
Shortly after his arrival, Maresca even went as far as making his squad stay overnight at the club’s training ground for a week in a bid to hammer home his principles.
Before joining Leicester, the former midfielder was Pep Guardiola‘s assistant at Man City.
He helped lead the Cityzens to the treble last season.
Speaking about Guardiola’s influence, Maresca told Sky Sports: “I’ve been lucky, I’ve worked under Ancelotti, Lippi, Manuel Pellegrini, all fantastic managers, but in terms of understanding the game, Pep has 100 per cent had an impact on me.
“It helps a lot having worked with the kinds of people [I have worked with]. You learn things and at the end you create your own idea as a manager and as a person. It’s just something gradual.
“The first idea was probably born when I faced Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona team as a player, that was the first time I realised something different happened and I was curious to understand, so I started analysing games and from there taking things from different managers. In the end you create your own idea.”