Why Enzo Maresca urges his players to avoid table obsession

Leicester City “will go crazy” if they obsess over the Championship table as they risk slipping from top spot.

City missed a chance to strengthen their grip on pole position on Tuesday night as they fell to defeat at relegation-threatened Millwall. It was their fifth loss in nine in the league.

Thanks to Leeds’ goalless draw with Sunderland, City stay at the summit for now. But if Ipswich beat Watford on Wednesday night, they will fall to second.

But even with only a few weeks to go in the season, Maresca has urged his team not to pay any attention to the standings. It won’t help the club’s cause.

“Now it’s a matter of not giving too much importance to it,” Maresca said. “I said the same after Birmingham and Norwich: there is no time to think too much. Tonight is gone.

“I’m serious, if you watch the table yesterday, and you watch tonight, and you watch again in two days, you get crazy. You know you have to think game by game and win games. That’s it.

“I think the last eight or 10 games, it’s similar for all of the teams in terms of you struggle a bit more because all of the opposition are playing for a target, to survive, to get promoted, to get into the play-offs. So every club is playing for some important target.

“The intensity is higher and we have played more or less 50 games already. It’s a problem for us but for all of the clubs. At the end everyone is struggling a little bit more.”

On Tuesday, City found it difficult to create clear-cut openings, only doing so after they went behind. They missed two big headed chances in added time, with Kelechi Iheancho’s cleared off the line and Patson Daka’s skewed wide.

“It was a tough night,” Maresca said. “Probably the first half we struggled a little bit on the ball. We were not clean. We knew they were a compact team. They defended very well.

“Because we are playing every three days, we expected in the second half to find more space and solutions. But they found a fantastic goal. We’re going to analyse the game in the right time. But now the focus is to recover the energy and try to go again on Friday.”