Claudio Ranieri has warned his Leicester City players that every position in the side is up for grabs and said that last season’s Premier League title success guarantees nothing when it comes to deciding the 11 names on his team-sheet in the current campaign.
Reflecting on a transfer window in which Leicester brought in seven players and took their summer spending to £65m with the acquisition of the club-record signing Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon on deadline day, Ranieri insisted there was no hierarchy in his playing squad and even the big names are vulnerable.
The Leicester manager acknowledged that he will need to rotate the team over the course of the season, with Saturday’s trip to Liverpool the first of seven matches in the space of 22 days, yet there was a clear message that nobody should be complacent about their starting place.
“Everybody renewed their contract, they know very well they can play or can’t play – that is football at the highest level,” the Italian said. “Of course there is not a hierarchy – it’s not [a case that] somebody who played last season is assured to play this season. I watch every training session, I watch every match, and if someone I see is better, then I change. Nobody is sure of their shirt to play at the beginning.”
Asked whether that included players such as the England internationals Jamie Vardy and Danny Drinkwater, Ranieri said: “Everybody – they have to stay at the highest level, and when I see them down, I have a player to replace them. That is important.
“If at the end of December we continue in the Champions League, or go on in the [EFL] Cup and there is somebody not happy, I can believe it and I can help him. But as long as we’re together, we have to be happy.
“It is not the first XI who won the title last season; all the players won the title, all the players are champions of the Premier League. I don’t remember who played 38 games or one. For me it was a group who won the title.”
Stressing how unity was the key to their success last season, Ranieri expects the players to buy into his holistic approach. “They must understand the leader is the team – that’s why we won last season,” he said. “You saw how they played, maybe just for the last four minutes [sometimes], but who played went on the pitch and played so hard. I want to see the same spirit. Our strength is our spirit.”
Leicester play their first ever Champions League game on Wednesday night, against Club Brugge in Belgium, in what will be a huge occasion for the club and a landmark moment for many of their players. Ranieri is adamant, however, that nobody will be playing with one eye on that game at Anfield and said the Premier League is the priority for everyone at Leicester this season.
“I am thinking only about the Liverpool match,” he said. “The massive thing is the Premier League – in my opinion – bigger than the Champions League. The Champions League is a gift for Leicester, for me, the players, for the fans. Everybody. We go there, we want to win, of course. But it is a strange competition. You can go out at the first round. And then what happens? No, we are focused on the Premier League. We want to defend the title in the Premier League.”
