Leicester's Enzo Maresca reveals Carlos Corberan "luck" response after West Brom defeat
Leicester boss and former Albion midfielder Enzo Maresca revealed a classy "unlucky" message from opposite number Carlos Corberan after the hosts edged 2-1 winners at the King Power Stadium.
The hosts prevailed and went back to the top of the Championship through goals from Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy while the Baggies let countless opportunities slip through their fingers.
Corberan's men fell to a second consecutive league defeat as the top-six race heats up but Albion's head coach lauded one of his side's best performance for some time in dominating the statistics – apart from the most important one – against who the Spaniard feels is the division's best side.
The hosts' Hamza Choudhury cleared off the line three times, Albion hit the woodwork and spurned several other golden chances, Leicester were not so wasteful as they sealed a crucial win to respond from a wobble of six defeats in 10.
Maresca revealed afterwards he said to Corberan that the Foxes were on the right side of luck in the lunchtime kick-off, but Corberan's response was one that fortune evens itself out.
“No, to be honest. I just said to Carlos outside that today we have been lucky," Maresca said. "And he said to me: ‘You have been lucky today, but in the last two games, you have been completely unlucky.'
"At the end, football is a matter of balance. What we got today, we lost in the last two games in terms of luck. It’s football. But they gave everything.
"Hamza was one, but Stephy (Mavididi), Abdul (Fatawu), Jamie, Kiernan (Dewsbury-Hall), that in the week he was not good, he has been unwell. In this moment, it’s more about the desire.”
It was a rare occasion in which Leicester had less possession than a Championship opponent (53 per cent to 47) and the Baggies had far more shots than their high-flying hosts with 18. Six were on target.
Corberan confirmed afterwards, something also noted by Maresca, that Albion tweaked their system to include midfielder Okay Yokuslu as part of a back five, as one of three central defenders. Yann M'Vila started and played the role Nathaniel Chalobah did against Wolves in the FA Cup in January.
Italian Maresca added: “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.”
