Following Leicester City’s loss to Leeds United, manager Enzo Maresca of Sunderland places the responsibility on a single player.

Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca makes Sunderland claim following Leeds United defeat

The Foxes’ boss picked out the Black Cats as a potential promotion rival last night.

 Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca believes Sunderland could be in the promotion mix this season, along with a number of other teams.

The Wearside outfit are currently one point away from the top six, but they will face competition from several other teams vying for promotion.

Jack Clarke could end up making the difference for the Black Cats

Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca believes Sunderland could be one of many sides in the promotion mix at the end of this term, making this prediction to the Yorkshire Evening Post.

The Foxes are still in pole position to secure automatic promotion along with Ipswich Town, with both teams starting the campaign extremely well.

However, less than a third of the 2023/24 campaign has unfolded and with this in mind, there’s plenty of time for clubs to force their way into the promotion mix, even if they are at the bottom end of the division at the moment.

Middlesbrough were previously in the relegation zone during the early stages of last term – but finished in fourth place in the end and were unlucky not to have secured promotion under Michael Carrick.

That will give many teams plenty of encouragement – and there will be many teams looking to secure a place in the top six with the quality of the division arguably increasing this year – with a recently promoted team sitting in the automatic promotion zone.

That just reinforces the difficult task many teams face in their quest to match or secure a better finish than they did last season.

What did Enzo Maresca say about Sunderland?

Despite Leicester’s excellent start to the season, Maresca is keeping his feet on the ground and last night’s 1-0 defeat against Leeds United would have helped with that.

The Whites’ victory at the King Power Stadium has reinforced the fact that there are still plenty of teams in contention for automatic promotion despite the Foxes and the Tractor Boys’ strong start – and the fact plenty of teams are in the race to secure promotion regardless of whether they are competing for the top two or the top six.

And Maresca has listed some of the teams that could be in the mix, saying: “There are many teams building to get promoted like us, Leeds they are building to get promoted.