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Bristol City 1-0 Leicester: 3 things we learned

With all of the build up across nearly three weeks without league football, we were hoping for a Leicester City that was up for nine cup finals. Alas, we've been here before just in a different guise. This was another defeat to add to the other four from the last six games. This continues a run of form that sees the club now desperately clinging on to an automatic spot they've been in for most of the season. So what did we learn?

By Damon Carter

Bristol City v Leicester City - Sky Bet Championship
Bristol City v Leicester City - Sky Bet Championship / Ryan Hiscott/GettyImages
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Enzo Maresca
Bristol City v Leicester City - Sky Bet Championship / Ryan Hiscott/GettyImages

Enzo doesn't like change

This isn't a new comment and is one that has been a consistent feature throughout Maresca's tenure. His starting eleven was unsurprising but perhaps it should have been. A little over a couple of days prior to this game kicking off, both Jannik Vestergaard and Wout Faes were playing international football for their respective countries. Conor Coady is a centre-back that has experienced the pressure of promotion campaigns before with a particularly tense but successful season at Wolverhampton Wanderers. His name would surely have been a welcome return to the line-up and could have given at least one of the tired jet-lagged legs of the two centre-back some much needed rest. But Enzo doesn't like mixing it up too much and his team selections are starting to show a familiarity that is getting frustrating.

The wingers never seem to be under pressure of losing their spaces as players like Wanya Marcal and Marc Albrighton cut the feel of token gesture bench warmers. The striker position was used oddly with Jamie Vardy given a large chunk of 90 minutes before being brought off for Kelechi 'i'm not fussed as i'll be off in the summer' Iheanacho. The central midfield is woefully short of numbers with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall looking out on his feet from 75 minutes every game. This makes it even more frustrating when the manager leaves his substitutes alone and rarely uses all available five to take pressure off the fatigued players. Enzo is starting to look a little stuck in his ways already and when the results aren't there it really shows through. With only 72 hours till the next game will he really be expecting the same XI to start again?

This isn't to say we should give up hope and not get behind the players as much as possible in this final run of fixtures. Surely the form will start to turn and maybe we can kick into gear just as we need to coming into the final run of games. But my thoughts are very much now starting to look at the play off picture, as this team and manager is starting to look consistently timid and uninspiring.

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