Enzo Maresca shuffled his pack as Leicester City beat Watford on Saturday – the inclusion of Ben Nelson is one which will pay dividends long term
Enzo Maresca reasoned that it was a ‘quite easy’ decision to include Ben Nelson in the Leicester City starting XI for the first time in a Championship match on Saturday as the Foxes ran out 2-1 winners over Watford at Vicarage Road. In the absence of the injured Jannik Vestergaard, who is likely to be back involved next week, Nelson got the nod over Conor Coady in partnering Wout Faes at the heart of defence.
Nelson, who is still only 19, signed a new long-term contract with the club in December after breaking into the first-team environment and, after taking his chance in the FA Cup last month, he was handed his full league debut for City by Maresca. Nelson completed an hour and looked relatively comfortable at this senior level, although Maresca – who ‘really likes’ Nelson – knows that there is more under the bonnet which will be extracted in time.
“The manager has to take the decision,” Maresca said of the call to include Nelson. “Sometimes they’re good, sometimes not so. With Ben it’s quite easy. I really like him. For me he is still 50-60%, because he can be much more braver on the ball. He’s still a little bit shy but he’s just 19 and he needs to improve many things – but I’m very happy with this performance.”
Elsewhere, Maresca – who has both Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough visiting the King Power Stadium this coming week, also handed starts to both midfielder Dennis Praet and the versatile James Justin, to combat the Hornets’ threats: “The first XI on Saturday, JJ played because their wingers are very quick, very good. Dennis is playing good, he gives us more physicality in the middle, also he’s a quality player.”
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