LEICESTER City manager Enzo Maresca was pleased with Kelechi Iheanacho’s performance in the 2-0 Championship victory over Watford despite taking off the Super Eagles striker early in the second half.
Jamie Vardy replaced Iheanacho in the 55th minute and scored both goals, the second from the penalty spot in stoppage time as Leicester City opened a three-point gap at the top over Ipswich Town.
Maresca explained that Iheanacho played his role well in the 55 minutes he lasted in the match.
“I was also happy with Kel’s performance,” the Italian said after praising the whole team for their efforts.
“He was dropping to give us an extra man in the middle, which is what we are looking for and then he also had some chances inside the box.
“And I don’t think by dropping we missed a striker inside the box because every time we arrived in the last third we always had five or six players in the box.”
Leicester City returned to winning ways with Saturday’s victory after two successful defeats and Maresca was happy with his side’s output.
“I think overall we deserved to win,” the 43-year-old told the club’s website.
“We improved in the second half. In the first half it was just a matter of tempo – starting quick with free-kick and goal-kicks – if they are not man-to-man, we can start quick.
“Stephy [Mavididi] missed a chance; Jamie [Vardy] missed a chance. At the end of the day, it will happen to all of them. It’s normal. In football, you don’t always take your chances, but the most important thing is the consistency to continue to try.
“You expect missed chances apart from Jamie. It was a big chance, but the good thing is that we missed chances, but we continued. In the end, finally, we scored. As I always say, when we win or when we lose, there are many things we can improve.
“But this is a journey that started less than five months ago so thinking that in five months everything is working well is not a reality. Especially after two defeats, seeing how difficult it is to win games, we continue in the way we want to play. It’s difficult, it’s a process but we are improving.”
Super midfielder Wilfred Ndidi returned to the starting line-up and played for 64 minutes after missing Leicester City’s last four games as well as Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
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