Riyad Mahrez has refused to end speculation linking him with a move away from Leicester City at the season’s end and has admitted he’d be keen to play alongside Lionel Messi one day. Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri would have no qualms about dropping Riyad Mahrez if the playmaker did not augment his sublime attacking skills with equally good defensive work, the Algerian said today.
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Algerian global Mahrez has been instrumental in their stunning Premier League season, scoring 14 goals and providing 10 assists.
The former Le Havre winger knows, however, that he can not sit on his laurels as the club try to win the top-flight title for the first time in their history.
“I think he’s taken all the best things from his experience of working with lots of different players, and has brought out the best in each of us”.
“Two times this year he (Ranieri) put me on the bench because I didn’t defend”. When you taste first place, if you then go and finish fourth you will be disappointed.
“But when I got here I really liked it. When I started training and playing games I thought to myself: ‘I was stupid to hesitate'”.
Leicester City star Riyad Mahrez believes the club’s relegation battle last season has helped their shock title challenge, according to BBC Sport. But now we are first, we want to stay there if we can. “Now we have nothing to lose”.
“Last season, it was very hard with a lot of pressure”.
Pearson also signed Mahrez and Jamie Vardy – the Premier League’s leading scorer – and earned the club promotion from the Championship. Even if we finish sixth or seventh now, he deserves credit because he built this team.
Asked whether the Foxes can win the league title, Mahrez said: “I don’t know, we’ll see”.
“He is just saying that to take the pressure of his team”, added Mahrez. “Maybe we find more space in [away games] especially against the big teams because they have more of the ball”.
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Riyadh Mahrez was at the Wigton Academy supporting the PlayStation Schools Cup run in association with the English Schools FA.
