Enzo Maresca spoke to the TNT Sports cameras ahead of kickoff in tonight’s game against Gent, and his comments about Cesare Casadei were very interesting.
It was quite subtle, but when asked what the Italian brings to his midfield, Enzo revealed quite a lot about his thinking. It seems that the youngster, more known for his attacking ability, is now considered a number 6 option in this B team, which otherwise lacks midfielders happy to sit deeper.
“His physicality is strong… he can help us off the ball, in the way we press,” Maresca explained.
“On the ball he is improving a lot. He’s doing well with us.”
What Maresca’s tell us about his new favourite
We can infer quite a lot from that. Firstly that the real reason Casadei was brought in against Barrow and again today is because of his capabilities off the ball, or defensively more generally. He’s tall and strong, which is important in this B team which is otherwise composed of quite a lot of small, tricky attacking players.
Secondly, of course, that Casadei’s play on the ball isn’t up to standards – not yet anyway. That much has been obvious since he signed, but given his eye for goal most people saw him being used further forwards as a sort of support striker, rather than deeper as a destroyer.
Maresca seems to really think he’s got something to work with in Casadei, whose opportunities have gone from 0 to B team regular in the space of just 3 games. Their time together at Leicester in the first half of last season seems to have given the former Inter academy player a headstart on some of his colleagues, and given Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo want to stay fresh for league games, using Casadei as a deep midfielder seems a clever solution from Maresca.
