Ranieri: We Have A Strong Group

- Claudio Ranieri praises players’ approach during first week as Leicester manager
- Italian will use second week to introduce his tactical philosophy
- Ranieri insists ‘I don’t want to change too much’
New Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has been impressed with the intensity with which his players have trained during his first week in charge.
And ahead of Tuesday night’s opening friendly of pre-season at Lincoln City, the experienced Italian wants to slowly introduce the group to his tactical philosophy.
Ranieri’s squad completed their week-long training camp in Austria on Friday, with the former Inter Milan and Juventus coach taking a keen interest in their approach to pre-season conditioning.
He now wants to see the players gradually rediscover their match legs, starting this week at Sincil Bank, while taking on some of the tactical tweaks he hopes will have sunk in by the time the Barclays Premier League campaign kicks off on 8 August.
“The first days have been very good because I saw all the players train very well with good intensity,” Claudio told Foxes Player HD.
“They are a good group, a strong group and we need to show this on the pitch.
“In these first days I see how they train and how they are involved in every exercise. I’ve been pleased to see how hard they are working.
“I now want to see them slowly find better conditioning – first 45 minutes, then 60 minutes, then the whole match.
“When we return to Leicester I will start to speak tactically with them and I am interested to see how quickly they begin to understand my football.
“It will be very close to how they are used to playing because it’s impossible to change too much.”
Appointed to his new post on Monday, Ranieri has used every spare minute off the training pitch to study City’s performances last season – both good and bad.
And having clearly identified a system this group of players is comfortable with, he plans to achieve success by sticking to what they know.
“I have seen they are solid when they play three at the back,” Ranieri said of his players.
“So we can either play with three midfielders or two in the middle and two on the flank.
“I don’t want to change too much, just to give them the Italian tactical way.”