Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri urges Foxes to enjoy themselves

Posted Monday, December 28, 2015 by PA

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has told his players they have to enjoy their football and not be restricted by their place at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

The Foxes retained their spot at the summit despite a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool courtesy of Christian Benteke's goal as later on Boxing Day Arsenal blew their chance to overtake them with in a 4-0 defeat at Southampton.

Pressure will only increase as the second half of the season begins to tick down and Ranieri is keen to avoid a repeat of what he saw at Anfield where his side were over-anxious.

"You know my idea about this (the title) - we are dreaming," said the Italian, whose side face Manchester City at home on Tuesday.

"We are in good condition and in a good position with 38 points.

"Now we can continue but I want to see my players enjoy it. I don't know why we were so nervous at the beginning. Why?

"Play football, don't worry. If you lose, lose. That's it. We have the time."

Leicester's two leading scorers Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez were both substituted at Anfield even though they were still chasing an equaliser.

Ranieri admitted he was mindful not to burn them out with City next up and many more challenges to come.

"Both were tired and Vardy played with a fever and I didn't want to give him more minutes to play, I wanted to preserve him," he added.

"Sunday we restart training and I will speak with them and then we have another day and then I will decide.

"I think Vardy will be okay. Danny Drinkwater starts with us tomorrow, he has trained alone all week, and he could be fit.

"City is another fantastic test."

City forward Kevin De Bruyne emerged from his man-of-the-match performance against Sunderland with a feeling of sympathy after seeing team-mate Vincent Kompany suffer another injury.

The shine was taken off City's 4-1 victory somewhat when defender Kompany was forced off just nine minutes into his comeback having suffered a recurrence of his calf problem.

The City skipper was making his first appearance since November 8 as a second-half substitute and was introduced after the hosts had conceded in his absence, continuing their run of failing to keep a clean sheet in each of the 10 Barclays Premier League games Kompany has not started.

The damage had already been done against the Black Cats, though, with De Bruyne instrumental having laid on two first-half goals before scoring himself after the break.

However, the 24-year-old admitted he felt for his fellow Belgian having seen his return to fitness cut short.

"It's difficult to say because obviously we don't know yet what he has, hopefully it's not too bad." De Bruyne told Press Association Sport.

"For him personally it's the hardest thing for the moment, I think.

"When you work so hard to come back and everything seems fine in the week and then you come on and you go quickly back again - it must be hard for him. We will be there to help him if he wants it."

Kompany is now unlikely to play on Tuesday at the start of a run of fixtures that will see City play four successive away games in 12 days.

Speaking about the Foxes, De Bruyne said: "You have to give props to them - they're doing really well. But if we win there we are on the same amount of points and we are there on top of the table with some other teams so at the moment everything is fine."