Leeds United rival boss locks team in dressing room for hour-long crisis talks as automatic pressure mounts — YEP 15/4/24
Leeds United’s Championship rivals Leicester City were locked in the away dressing room at Plymouth Argyle following defeat last Friday as Enzo Maresca chaired an impromptu crisis meeting with the Foxes squad.
By Joe Donnohue
Leicester fell to defeat against the Pilgrims in Devon, a
matter of days on from a similar 1-0 loss to relegation-threatened Millwall at
The Den.
While Leeds and Ipswich Town failed to capitalise, both
dropping points at the weekend, Leicester boss Maresca has witnessed his side
lose six of the last ten league games, after winning 25 of their opening 32
this season.
According to The Athletic, Maresca held an hour-long meeting
with his players inside the dressing room at Home Park on Friday evening in a
bid to rally his troops and salvage the team’s campaign, which until recently
appeared destined for automatic promotion and an immediate Premier League
return, both of which are now in jeopardy.
The Foxes’ schedule does not get any easier, nor from a
competition or fatigue perspective. They next face West Bromwich Albion and
Southampton, both of whom occupy places in the play-offs, before games against
Preston North End and Blackburn Rovers to finish the season. Maresca complained
of the fixture list ahead of Leicester’s 1-0 defeat on Friday, suggesting there
was little regard for his players’ welfare after being made to play
back-to-back away games versus Millwall and Plymouth in the space of three
days.
“We are the only team who played Tuesday night and now
Friday and at this moment, with our competitors, we are the only ones that
played two games away.
“I don't think people care too much about players’ health
because otherwise you cannot understand this kind of a decision.
"We played Tuesday night and arrived back at 3am. Today
[Thursday] we need to travel. We have a five hour trip back from Plymouth, but
the organisation decide that,” the Italian told reporters.
Crisis talks and team meetings at this stage of the season
are far from out of the ordinary; Daniel Farke is understood to have held a
summit with his players the day after Leeds’ defeat by Coventry City. While the
intention will have been to rally his side before one final push, the outcome
proved somewhat different as the team subsequently drew with Sunderland then
lost their unbeaten home record against Blackburn in the next two games.
Leicester still have the advantage of one more fixture to
play than promotion rivals Leeds and Ipswich, but on recent form and their
opponent happening to be Southampton who are still in with an outside chance of
automatic promotion, there is no guarantee the Foxes will make the most of
their additional fixture.
As it stands heading into this weekend’s round of games,
Ipswich sit top of the table on 89 points, with Leicester on 88 in second place
and Leeds third with 87 points to their name. Southampton, meanwhile, secured a
99th minute winner against Watford over the weekend, and have 81 points with
five matches remaining.