ON THE ROAD: Enzo Maresca’s Foxes are still top of the pile but there’s no pleasing some supporters after their disappointing 2-1 defeat to QPR

By anyone’s standards, Leicester City are having an excellent season.

They remain on course to return to the Premier League and have an FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea to look forward to later this month.

But even before Saturday’s runaway performance against Queens Park Rangers – their third successive league defeat in a rare occurrence this season – a section of Leicester fans had not warmed to manager Enzo Maresca.

Maresca, a disciple of Pep Guardiola from their time at Manchester City, demands his Leicester team dominate the ball and patiently scan their opponents.

Most visiting teams, who arrive with more hope than expectation given the strength of Leicester’s squad, opt to remain deep and frustrated.

Leicester boss Enzo Maresca watched from the sidelines as his side suffered a defeat at home

That may mean Leicester have 75 percent possession, but the majority of their passing is sideways and backwards.

The days of Jamie Vardy chasing are over and some Foxes fans are finding it a bit, well, boring.

The criticism, which manifests itself mainly online but sometimes also in the stadium when Leicester needs seventy to eighty minutes to loosen a defense, has even led to Maresca threatening to quit.

After the 3-1 win against Swansea on January 30, he said: ‘If you win at home, win, win and keep winning, people probably think it’s easy. But it’s not easy.

‘I joined this club to play with this idea. The moment there is any doubt about the idea, I will leave the next day.’

His team has led the championship since the end of September, but back in November Maresca said: “If you want to see a transition game, don’t come to Leicester.”

Luckily for the manager, his players bought into ‘the idea’ wholeheartedly and it has proven to be a huge success.

Leicester have won 25 of 35 Championship games and have outscored everyone. They could even repeat their 2021 FA Cup victory.

Sinclair Armstrong came off the bench and scored with his first touch against the leader

Jamie Thorpe, a writer for the Leicester fan website The Fosse Road, said, “I’m 100 percent pro-Maresca camp, but there’s a minority who are ruining it for the rest of us and, dare I say it, kind of right.”

‘Maresca is a victim of his own success. No one expected him to do the job he did. Considering the state we were in, you’ve seen teams collapse and continue to plummet. We took off and people got used to winning.

‘These conversations have come up a few times and you get comments like, ‘Well, it’s only Rotherham.’ That’s not how this competition works: it’s a nightmare of a competition!

‘His style is patient, but they expect you to attack fully. People call them the ‘come forward brigade’.

“Teams come to the King Power and frustrate. I’m surprised there are opponents, there’s no reason for that at all.’

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Speaking about the King Power’s approach, Brian, a long-standing Leicester fan, spoke along similar lines.

‘It may be a slow, patient build-up, but it works. When it goes, it goes damn well with very fast and smooth play,” he said.

‘We are fortunate to have an innovative, exciting and young manager who any other team, including in the Premier League, would love to have.

‘Yes, it’s a different playing style. But boring? Come on!’

QPR achieved the perfect mix between frustrating Leicester and counter-punching to achieve a result that will leave the Foxes fanbase nervous. Leicester had 74 percent possession and had 18 shots on target, but a full house stayed with them as they tried to salvage something from 2-0 down after Ilias Chair and Sinclair Armstrong scored.

Young defender Ben Nelson replied, but it was a third league defeat in a row after defeats to Leeds and Middlesbrough, with Ipswich now three points behind.

It was left to the calm Maresca to calm things down. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been there (at the top) and everyone is chasing us,” he said. “If you drop points and everyone else wins, you can see they are coming, but we need balance. You can’t be so happy or so sad, you just have to win games.’

But even when that happens, not everyone is satisfied.