Yahoo News Enzo Maresca makes Hamza Choudhury contract point after heroics in 'third position'
Enzo Maresca paraded Hamza Choudhury around the King Power Stadium after his performance as a ‘goalkeeper’ earned Leicester City a crucial three points against West Brom.
Maresca and the City squad rushed to congratulate Choudhury at the full-time whistle on Saturday after the academy graduate made three goal-line clearances to keep out the Baggies and send his team back to the top of the table. Maresca, having already kissed Choudhury’s afro during a break in play in the 90 minutes, then did a lap of the ground with his arm around the midfielder at full-time, hyping up the crowd and encouraging more applause for his performance.
Choudhury was only brought into the 11 with Ricardo Pereira having missed training this week. But as well as taking on the double right-back/central midfield role, Maresca joked that he also had to operate in a third position as goalkeeper.
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“In terms of recognising good human beings, it’s something most of the time I do in the right way,” Maresca said. “Hamza is probably the only guy we renewed (the contract of) this season. We made him one of the captains. He is from the house (the academy). With us, on the pitch and off the pitch, he has always been very good. So we were very happy.
“He completely deserved it. Today he played in some moments as a keeper. It is what it is. We have a plan. When it’s not working well, one plan, and the other one is not working, also you need mentality and I think they completely showed that.”
While this was just City’s fourth win in their last 11 Championship matches, it was one of their weakest performances in that run, and Maresca admitted his side were lucky. It was a “crazy” game, and that’s not what City want.
Maresca said: “It was a crazy game. We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the first half. We conceded some chances. Probably because they surprised us a little bit.
“Once again it happened. They were playing all season with a line of four then they came here with a line of five. They only played in the same way against Wolves. We adjusted. We scored the goal and missed the penalty. We didn’t concede anything in the last 25 minutes of the first half.
“The second half was a little bit up and down. That’s something we don’t like. I said many times we are not a team to play basketball games because of the skills we have. Overall at this stage of the season, it’s very important to win games. We are happy.”
