Ranieri: Mahrez Is Leicester’s King

We had dominated the game (until then). “Martin is now missing and that is not ideal but it is not our place to complain about this. It’s stupid if we have pressure”.

“We are underdogs at the moment and people are waiting for us to fail”.

The England global has bagged a division-high 15 goals this season, and broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record for scoring in successive Premier League matches by notching in 11 in a row. Klopp is desperate for his side to become more resilient and but knows an ever-changing backline does not help. “This is the first time in my life I have lived in a foreign country and it is different – but everything is OK”.

Chelsea remain three points above the relegation zone, while Manchester United lost to Norwich last weekend to drop out of the top four.

Liverpool came back from 1-0 down last December to emerge as 3-1 victors.

Meanwhile, Ranieri has told Riyad Mahrez he must learn to deal with the spotlight and speculation.

Now boss Ranieri reckons the team’s energy and stamina is like the athletically-gifted character Tom Hanks depicted in the 1994 Oscarwinning American epic “Forrest Gump”.

– Leicester are only the second team in top-flight history to be bottom of the league at Christmas one season and top of that league on Christmas day the next, after Norwich City in 1987-88 (bottom) and 1988-89 (top).

Leicester was considered foolish for plucking Ranieri from the ranks of unemployed coaches to replace Pearson in July. “Sooner or later we will lose a match – I hope later – but we must continue to work hard”.

“He wants to stay with us, we want to keep him and that’s it”, Ranieri said.

“We are doing well but haven’t achieved anything yet”, he said.

Claudio Ranieri is top of the Premier League with Leicester City and has some interesting theories about Jose Mourinho.

He added: “I think we aren’t ready to fight to be champions but football is fantastic for this reason”.

Leicester will beat Ranieri’s pre-season points target of 40 with a win at Anfield and if they do that he will sit down with his players to re-evaluate their ambitions.

They travel to ninth placed Liverpool on Boxing Day and Molby sees a huge test for the Reds; one which will need players and fans to be united in giving everything at Anfield.