Enzo Maresca admitted Middlesbrough’s change in formation caught his Leicester City side by surprise, but felt the biggest factor in his side’s defeat was their poor finishing.
Michael Carrick set his side up with the three-man defence that had worked so well against Aston Villa in the FA Cup and the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea. It had the desired impact again, as Boro ended a four-game winless run to beat the league leaders.
The win, courtesy of goals from Finn Azaz and Sammy Silvera, meant Boro completed the double over the Foxes this season who, even with the defeat remain nine points clear at the top of the Championship. For Leicester’s Italian head coach, there were three factors behind what was only the second league defeat of the season for his side at the King Power Stadium.
“They played (in their shape) against us tonight only once before, which was against Chelsea in the Carabao. So we expected something different. But even playing in a different way, we created many chances. We tried to adjust and adapt. Probably we lose a bit of balance after we conceded the first goal, conceding some counter-attacks that we need to avoid.
“The other thing, we contact many times with Abdul, Stephy, Kiernan, Ricky, Dennis, and probably we missed the last pass. Even with these kind of things that we need to improve, we had many, many chances that we missed.”
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