Leicester City boss Craig Shakespeare ‘not looking to future’ despite player backing

Shakespeare has a 100 per cent record as a first-team manager having won his first two games in charge of Leicester against Liverpool and Hull.

Premier League champions Leicester City have appointed interim boss Craig Shakespeare as permanent manager until the end of the season.

Leicester City is currently in a transitional phase, with Claudio Ranieri gone and Craig Shakespeare now in charge of the club.

Leicester were comprehensively outplayed in the first leg, but Jamie Vardy’s 73rd-minute goal means a 1-0 win will suffice to take them into the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time. “We have to keep our focus on Tuesday’s game, which it will be very important for us”.

Guardiola has won all seven previous last-16 ties with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but City’s recent away form is mediocre at best with just one victory in their last six games in Europe.

No wonder Drinkwater said: “We know it will be tough”. They may not have been at their best at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for the first leg, but they picked up a crucial goal and have made noticeable improvements in the weeks since. But Shakespeare will have his work cut out for him to turn the season around.

“We are not going to be open but I want to play on the front foot”.

Leicester had been in the bottom three but those wins have now pulled the champions three points clear of the relegation zone in 15th spot.

“I’m quite calm and collected”.

“It excites me, it excites the players”, he added.

“We have to compete for the 90 minutes or extra time”.

“There are massive challenges ahead and none more so than this game”, he said.

Can we now assume that the team that takes the field on Tuesday night will be the one that re-wrote the Premier League history books with one of sport’s greatest ever fairytales?

“It’s a great appointment”. He is a good fit.

“Craig was really good with the England players in that short time and they all respected him”, he said.

“As a manager he has taken on board everything and passed what he can on to the players, which is excellent for us”.

Now, besides becoming the new “Tinkerman”, Shakespeare has the possibility of proving the second Tony Barton, another career coach propelled into the limelight by the departure of a title-winning manager.

“He helps us enjoy our football”.