Pearson Focused On Fitness

The likes of David Nugent, Chris Wood, Anthony Knockaert and Matty James all survived the toil of their first full pre-season match in a game that City dominated from the outset.

But despite being unable to break down a stubborn York City side, managed by former City caretaker Nigel Worthington, it was a match that gave Pearson further clues as to how his players are shaping up ahead of the big Championship kick-off on 3 August at Middlesbrough.

Speaking exclusively to Foxes Player, Pearson revealed: “It’s important not to read too much into the results. Win lose or draw, tonight I was looking to learn a bit more about where the players are at – both physically and psychologically.

“We know their actually fitness because we’re monitoring them all the time, but when you’re out there playing the situation is sometimes a little bit different.

“I think at this stage in pre-season in the past we’ve played two games on the same day, but this year we’ve re-jigged it and it has worked okay.

“We’ve had the senior squad getting 90 minutes and that’s important for the players psychologically as well as on the physical side. We weren’t fluid, but we created chances and played some reasonable football in patches and we’ve certainly got a lot more to come.

“It was another opportunity for a different group of players to get minutes and I think that’s always important for players that they get the opportunity to play games, so the last two nights have been useful to us in terms of preparation.”