Enzo Maresca’s challenge for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall gets perfect response in Leicester City win

The new manager analyses his maiden win in charge of Leicester City as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall comes good

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall provided a perfect response to Enzo Maresca’s pre-season challenge by scoring his first Leicester City brace and earning a maiden win for the Italian manager.

Dewsbury-Hall netted twice in the final 15 minutes to help City come from behind and beat neighbours Coventry, the homegrown midfielder matching his goal tally from last season in a single game, having scored twice in 34 appearances as the club were relegated.

After the win, Maresca revealed that he had checked each player’s goal and assist numbers upon his appointment and had told Dewsbury-Hall that with his quality, he could significantly improve his tally.

The Italian has been encouraging him to get into the box and it was from inside the 18-yard area that Dewsbury-Hall headed in the equaliser and then rifled in a winner three minutes from the end.

Maresca said: “At the beginning of the season, when I checked the numbers of the players in terms of goals and assists, I told him that he has better quality to score more goals and make more assists for his team-mates,” Maresca said. “The only way to do it is to arrive in the box.

“In the first half, Wilfred (Ndidi) arrived two or three times in the box. For us, players like that, Wilfred, Kiernan and Dennis (Praet), they are attacking midfielders, and the only way to score is to arrive in the box, and Kiernan scored because he was there.”

City had to come from behind to get the victory after conceding from a corner early in the second half, a flaw Maresca is well aware of, and there were other chances too for Coventry to add to their lead before City started to make their comeback.

So while the goals came in the second period and Maresca was pleased with the character shown to come from behind, it was the first-half performance that was closer to how he wants the team to play.

“For me it’s quite clear, the analysis,” Maresca said. “The team was very good in the first half, playing how we want. The second half, the dynamic changed. We lost our balance and conceded counter-attacks that we don’t usually concede.

“We were facing a team that two months ago was playing to get promoted, we are just relegated, so mentally there are two different teams going opposite way, one going up and one going down. You need to be mentally strong. We showed great effort and character.

“The feeling (for the winner) was unbelievable. It gave us three points. But analysing the game, I really appreciated the first half of the team. We played good football in the way we want to play, creating chances, arriving in the last third. We had a lack of quality in the last third and we need to improve.

“In the second half, the dynamic changed completely. We conceded from a set-piece that, you know better than me, we have conceded many, many, many goals from in the last years. It was not easy to come back but we did it.”