Vardy scored against Swansea in Leicester’s last Premier League game before the worldwide break and the manager hopes that the 29-year-old can take out his frustration on Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
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The Premier League champions agreed a €30million deal with Sporting CP to sign the Algeria global, who agreed a five-year deal at the King Power Stadium.
Slimani is set to link up with Leicester ahead of Saturday’s trip to Anfield and manager Ranieri has no hesitation in playing the 28-year-old despite his limited time with his team-mates.
Slimani will not meet his new team-mates until tomorrow and will have one training session before Saturday’s trip to Anfield, but Ranieri said he could hand the Algeria worldwide his debut. “He could play, but I want to speak with him and to see him and then we will see”, said Ranieri, who also confirmed that Kasper Schmeichel was fit to start after a minor hernia operation.
“He’s available for Saturday”. He could play. We bought him because we believe in his ability.
“It is a goalscorer but it is important he understands the Premier League”.
“He cost a lot of money but if you see the market it’s a insane market”. I’m happy with it.
“Until now we had to find just the players with a not high target but a big future”, said Ranieri.
“It is important when a player changes country that he has to adapt and keep calm”.
Kasper Schmeichel is fit to start as the goalkeeper has recovered from surgery on the hernia that forced him off during the win over Swansea a fortnight ago and out of missed Denmark’s games during the worldwide break.
“He [Schmeichel] is ready to play”, he added. “For me it is good [that he didn’t play for England]”.
Nampalys Mendy is also still out with an ankle injury while Jeff Schlupp will not be risked as he continues to recover from a muscle strain. We are a very strong team. We didn’t win the title because we are lucky.
“Now we are champions, we play in Champions League”.
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However, we prefer Leicester to pick up at least a point at 2.35 as they’re a far more consistent side under Ranieri than Liverpool are under Klopp.
