Cesare Casadei and Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca know there is much more to come from the Italian midfielder after his first 90-minute outing in the Championship for the club.
The Chelsea loanee stepped in for Wilfred Ndidi on Tuesday night in City’s 1-0 win over Sunderland and produced one of his most confident performances of the season. He twice came close to scoring in the second half, while he also set up two good chances for Kelechi Iheanacho.
Casadei had struggled in matches between the two international breaks, but will now be hoping to kick on after getting a full game under his belt. He could start again at QPR with Ndidi not certain to be available, the Nigerian absent in midweek with tiredness. If so, he’ll hope to take the chances that fall to him.Reacting to his two opportunities against Sunderland, Casadei told the club: “(Anthony Patterson) did a very good save the second time, and the first as well, but I think the first opportunity I could score. I should have scored because it was easy.
“I always try to give my best. I think I can do even more, I think I can give even more than that. I want to always improve every game. But we are really happy because we demonstrated we are a really strong team even when the opponent is aggressive.”
For Maresca, Casadei has impressed in how he ghosts into the penalty area, but could still make improvements in other areas of the number eight role, just like Ndidi. He compared their battle for game-time to that between Jannik Vestergaard and Conor Coady at the back, with Casadei needing to perform well in training and stay patient for his extended opportunity.
