Leicester vs Liverpool: Claudio Ranieri tells players to seize their title chance

Ranieri dismissed the prospect of Leicester’s title rivals at the Etihad being distracted by the impending change of management

(Reuters)

Claudio Ranieri shook his head and smiled when asked whether he could envisage himself hoisting the Premier League trophy for Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season, but the Italian knows it is no longer in the realms of fantasy.

“I am a positive man and a positive man takes everything step by step,” Ranieri said. “But you are moving too fast, like a Formula One car.”

As Leicester prepare to face Liverpool at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday, however, Ranieri is fully aware that the lap counter is beginning to run down.

With 15 games to go, the Italian’s team are three points clear at the top of table, 10 points ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United, and facing a sequence of fixtures against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal which could define their season.

Having consistently played down Leicester’s title hopes ever since his players climbed into the top four, Ranieri is now urging them to seize the moment.

“This has been a crazy league, very strange, but the players know that we can now do something good,” Ranieri said. “This is the right moment to push a lot, to fight, because next season will not be the same.

“This season, we can fight because it is David against Goliath, but next season will be the truth. I said I wanted us to reach 40 points. We did that and I am happy.

“If we take more, I will be even happier,” he added, “but now we face Liverpool and I want my players to look at the game as being the last game that finishes our season. We must be focused.”

Liverpool and Arsenal remain the only two teams to have defeated Leicester in the Premier League this season and Ranieri admits that the outcome of the return fixtures, plus the trip to City on Saturday, will be crucial for his team’s title ambitions.

“If you say to me that we will lose two more games between now and the end of the season, I will sign for that now,” Ranieri said. “But yes, the next three games are very crucial.

“Every time I have said, ‘Look where we are in a month,’ we have stayed in the top positions, so now I say let us look where we are at the end of February.

“I like positive energy. If you believe positively and talk with positivity, then you can do much more than if you are negative.”

With City confirming that Pep Guardiola will replace Manuel Pellegrini as manager in the summer, Ranieri dismissed the prospect of Leicester’s title rivals at the Etihad being distracted by the impending change of management.

“Of course, I feel sorry for Pellegrini, but this is our life,” Ranieri said. “I am [an] old man, nothing in football surprises me. I knew from the start [when Roman Abramovich arrived] at Chelsea that I was finished at the end of the season. Abramovich tried to hire Sven Goran Eriksson, but could not get him from the English [Football] Association.

“Then [chief executive] Peter Kenyon spoke to say, ‘If Claudio does not win the title, it will be a disaster’, so I knew and I understood the situation.

“But everybody at Chelsea stayed very focused, we got to the Champions League semi-final and finished second behind the unbeatable Arsenal team.

“So I don’t think it will affect the focus of the Manchester City players.”