The Leicester City loanee lashed in the second goal of the 3-0 win over Birmingham in Saturday’s FA Cup tie to get his first for the club since arriving from Galatasaray
Yunus Akgun is finally off the mark for Leicester City but he has a long way to go to fulfil Enzo Maresca’s expectations.
The loanee rocketed in City’s second as they beat Birmingham 3-0 to move into the last 16 of the FA Cup. It was his maiden strike for the club, coming five months after joining from Galatasaray on loan.
The goal was part of an improved second-half display from Yunus, who was energetic in the press off the ball, and carried it with threat when in possession. That’s more of what Maresca wants to see.
Yunus looked thrilled to get his first goal, but he can’t be content with that, the City manager has said. Maresca is not satisfied yet.
“I know Yunus very well and he’s not doing what we expected from him,” Maresca said following Saturday’s victory. “He can do much more. He can do for 95 minutes what he did in the second half.
“So we expect much more. But at the same time, he has been injured for a long time, he came here from a different country, he needs to adapt. We are very happy in terms of he is improving, but he can do much, much, much more.”
Yunus was not the only player to improve in the second period. The whole team did, which allowed City to recover from a first half in which they were in debt to the performance of goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.
But Maresca expected the issues his side had, given the number of changes he made, with only Hamza Choudhury keeping his spot from Monday’s draw with Ipswich. The introduction of Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, and Kasey McAteer at half-time made a big difference.
Maresca said: “I was very calm (at half-time). When you prepare, you expect what can happen. I expected what arrived first half. ‘Guys, disaster in terms of the way we want to play.’ I was ready for this first 45 minutes. I was quite calm.
“Dennis, Yunus, Marc, Jamie, Wanya, Brandon, Ben, Callum, the keeper. Ten of 11, they didn’t get the minutes. They are new players. It’s normal that you’re going to struggle. We just adjust some things in terms of possession, with more control of the ball and more passes. First half, we were giving the ball away after two or three passes.”
Leave a Reply