Leicester vs Manchester City: Liverpool result to forget but Claudio Ranieri is boosted by great team spirit

Ranieri has done his best to focus Leicester on reaching 40 points, but they remain two away from that target, albeit top of the table with their next game a home one to third-placed Manchester City

Leicester striker Jamie Vardy (right) was substituted against Liverpool (Getty Images)

Claudio Ranieri arrived at Leicester City’s training base in Aylestone early yesterday morning appreciating that he now faces a slightly different challenge to the one posed in the previous 10 weeks when his team had gone undefeated.

Ranieri has done his best to focus efforts on Leicester reaching the supposed Premier League safety mark of 40 points. After losing 1-0 at Liverpool on Saturday, they remain two away from that target, albeit top of the table with their next game a home one to third-placed Manchester City on Tuesday night.

“It is in our mind, we have to recover,” he said. “It is a question of forgetting this result, of accepting it and moving on. We knew we had to lose eventually, so we must forget. It is how we react mentally now.”

It was suggested to Ranieri that, for the first time under his guidance, Leicester looked tired at Anfield. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez – star performers this season – were substituted, and without their presence the raw belief, which has taken Leicester to improbable heights, appeared to bleed from the side.

Ranieri responded with an old managerial trick – talking up the players when they are down, having dampened expectation throughout the period they were up.

Asked whether Leicester possess the strength in depth to sustain, at the very least, a top-four challenge, he responded: “Yes. I believe we have. I don’t think we are tired. We were nervous at the beginning and only played when we went a goal down.

“I have been asked many times will I make signings, ‘in the window, what’s happening?’ Nothing! We have a very good team and an incredible spirit. They are friendly together; they are close to each other. That is fantastic, and if we take one, two, three players and wreck the dressing room? No! The team is fantastic. We work hard for each other and we are not tired. We didn’t play against Liverpool until it is too late, but we can’t be criticised for our effort. We worked very hard.”

Ranieri plans to hold a meeting with his squad as soon as they have achieved their next win, but will ask for at least one theme to remain the same. “We must enjoy our football,” he said. “We must go out and not be nervous and worried about losing as we were at the start of this game.”

Christian Benteke’s second-half strike won the game for Liverpool. They face Sunderland on Wednesday, with Jürgen Klopp continuing to insist that Daniel Sturridge must prove his fitness on the grass of the Melwood training centre before his return to first-team action, despite the player’s claims on social media that he is ready.

“We really, really have to be patient now, we have to wait,” Klopp warned. “We have to train, we have to give the body the right information, and if he can do this, then maybe we can change something. Otherwise we always have to stay here in this situation for the next 10 years and always talk about where is Daniel Sturridge, ‘Can you play him?’”