The “Tinkerman” will surely consider living up to his old nickname on the back of Leicester’s 4-1 loss away to Liverpool on Saturday.
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The simplicity of Leicester’s approach remains the same and if clubs in the Premier League have had a year to analyse and find ways to beat them, Brugge were caught cold by the vicious counter-attack and intense physical commitment which won them the title.
Albrighton’s opener was the ideal start to what promises to be an intriguing campaign, but more than one slice of luck went Leicester’s way in the early stages.
“Maybe the music woke up him!” the Leicester manager said.
The win was only Leicester’s second in six competitive games so far this season, and the second time the club has kept a clean sheet.
“Slimani is an intelligent player and I’m sure if he plays he will be fine”. Brugge played right into Leicester’s hands, attacking them like so many other naive English sides did last season.
Despite the comfortable nature of the victory over Club Brugge, Leicester fielded their best 11 and whilst Ranieri manged to take off Vardy, Slimani and Mahrez towards the end of the game, it could take its toll towards the end of this weekend’s game.
“There are another five, so stay calm, humble”, added Ranieri, whose team are already in control of Group G after rivals Porto and FC Copenhagen drew 1-1 in Portugal. The Foxes earned a solid 2-1 win against Swansea in their last fixture before the worldwide break, however, that result was prefaced with a 2-1 defeat at Hull and a 0-0 draw at home against Arsenal and they were thumped 4-1 at Anfield last weekend.
“We’ve got to this level of football life where that would normally be done down, but because they won at Man City and then went on to win the league it’s been rightly lauded”.
“The match could have changed face if they scored at the beginning, but they lost the chance and our first chance we scored a goal”.
Ranieri said before the Liverpool game that no player is safe from being dropped, regardless of their exploits in the title-winning campaign.
“But we have started well”.
“If he doesn’t score, I take the neck and I crush the neck”, he joked.
After that, Liverpool scored two in the 56 and the 89 minute to make it 4-1. “We scored very early and that gave us more confidence”, Ranieri told UEFA.
They had the best away record in the Championship last season with 11 wins and 42 points from 23 matches. “The good teams keep going, which they did last season”, he said.
“It’s the flawless start”, said the Leicester striker. They also were not part of any European Competition, so they had much more rest than most of the big clubs in the Premier League.
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“Now we play the first match, there are another five”.
