Enzo Maresca Tactic

A former Juventus player, a former Manchester City staff member and now the Leicester City manager.

Enzo Maresca has had a great footballing career, spanning over 19 years or 394 appearances.

As a staff member, he was part of the Elite Department team at Manchester City, before becoming the Parma manager for a season.

He returned to Manchester City as an assistant manager for Pep Guardiola after his unsuccessful Parma reign.

And in 2023 he tried his hand again as a head coach, this time in the Championship at Leicester City.

And this time proved to be the lucky one.

It might be the time he spent alongside Pep Guardiola or his long footballing career or both, but his tactical approach took the Championship by storm.

His 5-5 approach, not aggressive but pragmatic, surprised his opponents.

His 4-3-3 approach is setting up the team in a way in which they play with two blocks. At first glance, it may seem like a defensive approach.

But the tactic is anything but defensive. The defensive part comes from the fact that it has an inherent potential for possession football if the opposition is not easily breakable.

A sweeper keeper on attack duty, to participate in the passing game and to sweep up the loose balls.

An inverted winger on defend duty. This player is required to step into the midfield when his team is in possession. But not venture in the attack.

He is meant to become a second defensive or central midfielder, being a shield in front of the defense against counterattacks.

Two ball playing defenders on defend duty as center backs. These players can also be central defenders.

And an inverted full back, as he comes inside when his team is in possession and makes up a back 3 when defending.

Of course, the right-side ball playing defender is required to stay wider when in possession, to stretch the defensive line and take the right full backs place.

In front of the defense, a defensive midfielder on defend duty. Thia player is required to participate in the passing game once the ball was recovered, but to not venture too much in attack.

His priority is to recover the ball, pass it on and then hold his position against counterattacks.

One box-to-box midfielder and once central midfielder on support duty make up the midfield area.

Both are required to get further forward, to encourage them to step up when the team is in possession and crowd this space here.

Two wingers on attack duty on the wings. Given that none of the wing backs overlaps, these players must be assigned roles that would stretch the opposition’s defense.

They are told to cut inside with the ball, when possible, to compensate for their roles lack of movement.

And a complete forward on support duty makes up the formation. This player is required to come deep to get the ball when needed or to be the first passing option when the defensive player need one.

In this way, we create the 5-5 setup that Enzo Maresca put in place for Leicester City.

As mentality, positive. You can also go with attacking if your team is the best in the league or the match.

In possession, fairly wide and pass into space. Enzo Maresca focuses on possession as the other teams in the Championship defend against them. But this doesn’t’ mean that he is not encouraging his players to pass the ball into space if needed.

Play out of defence, shorter passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And low crosses.

In transition, counter-press, counter and distribute the ball quickly to the central defenders through short kicks.

And out of possession a high line of engagement, a higher defensive line, trigger press more often and prevent goalkeeper short distribution.

This setup works if you are the best team most of the times. If you are not, then lower the defensive line to a standard one and press less often, maybe even tick the prevent goalkeeper distribution option off.

This tactic was a strange one for me. It has an element of the Italian approach, but at the same time it is a Pep Guardiola possession one, while attacking like Jurgen Klopp at times.

Indeed, defensively we conceded only 23 goals in the league in my building a nation save with FC Voluntari, in Romania. And we scored 77. Which are good numbers for us.

However, at times I felt like we were struggling. Especially in European competitions.

But we won the league and in a commanding fashion.

Studying Enzo Maresca’s coaching career, this tactic resembles his path. It took a bit of time for it to get started, but when it did, it felt like it couldn’t be stopped.