Enzo Maresca says he put no pressure on Leicester star Tom Cannon to perform

Posted Tuesday, January 02, 2024 by PA

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca said he put no pressure on Tom Cannon to perform ahead of the Championship leaders’ 4-1 win against Huddersfield.

Cannon scored twice on his full debut for a Leicester side who now have a 10-point lead at the top of the table ahead of Ipswich.

The 21-year-old opened the scoring and added another just after the hour mark, as well as seeing another effort ruled out for offside.

Goals from Leicester captain Ricardo Pereira and Stephy Mavididi completed the scoring for the hosts. Huddersfield captain Michal Helik pulled one back but Maresca’s side were always in control as they stretched their unbeaten record to 10 matches.

Cannon had been out of action until last month due to a stress fracture of the back which Leicester discovered when the player signed in September.

“It hasn’t been easy for Tom, he was two or three months out with the injury, then we’d been winning games with Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho and Patson Daka,” said Maresca.

“Tom’s had to wait for his chance and, yes he scored two goals. But when you don’t play games, and suddenly you get your chance, everyone is expecting big things.

“But it’s difficult to do those things.

“I told him to ‘just go out there, and don’t think it’s your first time and you need to show people, or me, that you’re good. Because if you’re here, we think you’re good enough. Just enjoy it’.

“It’s not easy, but he gave everything along with the whole team.”

Maresca explained what happened when Cannon signed.

“We bought Tom thinking he was fit. We saw from the medical and saw he had a problem, we didn’t know that,” he said.

“It was strange as he had been playing at Everton. But I knew Tom from his loan spell at Preston last season, and he scored eight goals.

“But even though he was fit, he wouldn’t have played from the start because there are so many good forwards here.”

Cannon says he hopes to emulate Vardy at Leicester, and Maresca says he will learn from the former Golden Boot winner.

“I think if you ask any striker in the world, they would want to learn something from Jamie Vardy,” said the Italian.

“But if Tom’s 50 per cent as good as Jamie, then I’ll be happy.”

Huddersfield manager Darren Moore said Leicester showed why they are promotion favourites.

“We were beaten by the better side on the day, they’re top of the league for a reason – the players can’t feel any disgrace for their performance,” said Moore.

“The second goal was disappointing for me as that took the game away from us.

“At 3-1, we had some wonderful opportunities, if we’d taken them then it might’ve been a different end to the game.

“That’s credit to how we set up and how we go about games.

“From a mental aspect, we have that endeavour not to give up and show commitment. That’s really important and we did get back into the game.

“But when they scored the fourth goal, that was it for the game. But Michal has scored seven goals as a centre-back, but if you ask him, he’d rather have the clean sheets and the wins.

“We feel more now that we are fitter and more robust.”