The Leicester City loanee scored the second goal of the 3-0 win over Birmingham in Saturday’s FA Cup fixture, his first for the club since joining from Galatasaray.
Yunus Akgun has finally scored for Leicester City, but he still has a long way to go before living up to Enzo Maresca’s high expectations.
The loanee scored City’s second goal as they defeated Birmingham 3-0 to advance to the FA Cup round of 16. He scored his first goal for the club five months after entering on loan from Galatasaray.
The goal was part of Yunus’s improved second-half performance, in which he was energetic in the press off the ball and carried it with threat while in possession. This is more of what Maresca wants to see.
Yunus was overjoyed after scoring his first goal, but the City management has stated that he will not be satisfied. Maresca isn’t satisfied yet.
“I know Yunus very well, and he’s not doing what we expected from him,” Maresca said after Saturday’s triumph. “He can do a lot more. He is capable of repeating his performance from the second half for 95 minutes.
“So we expect a lot more. However, he has been injured for a long time, he has come from another nation, and he must adapt. We are pleased that he is improving, but he can do much, much more.”
Yunus was not the only player who improved throughout the second period. The whole team did, which allowed City to rebound from a first half in which they were in debt to the play of goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk.
However, considering the number of changes he made, Maresca anticipated the problems his team would face, with just Hamza Choudhury remaining from Monday’s draw with Ipswich. The arrival of Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, and Kasey McAteer at halftime made a significant difference.
Maresca stated: “I felt extremely calm (at halftime). When you prepare, you anticipate what could occur. I predicted what happened in the first half. “Guys, disaster in terms of how we want to play.” I was ready for the first 45 minutes. I was fairly relaxed.
“Dennis, Yunus, Marc, Jamie, Wanya, Brandon, Ben, and Callum, the goalkeeper. Ten out of eleven didn’t get their minutes. They’re new players. It’s normal to struggle. We just change some possession parameters, such as increasing ball control and passing frequency. In the first half, we were handing the ball away after two or three passes.
