‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

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‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

Russell Martin wants to see the same level of intensity from his Leicester City side as we prepare to face Oxford United on Saturday.

2026-09-05T08:00+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

8 Hours 50 Mins Ago

‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

Russell Martin wants to see the same level of intensity from his Leicester City side as we prepare to face Oxford United on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2026-09-05T08:00+01:00

‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

Russell Martin wants to see the same level of intensity from his Leicester City side as we prepare to face Oxford United on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2026-09-05T08:00+01:00

‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

Russell Martin wants to see the same level of intensity from his Leicester City side as we prepare to face Oxford United on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2026-09-05T08:00+01:00

‘We Have To Be Hungry For More’ – Martin On Oxford Test

Russell Martin wants to see the same level of intensity from his Leicester City side as we prepare to face Oxford United on Saturday.

Sam Jones

2026-09-05T08:00+01:00

Four days on from a home victory over Plymouth Argyle, our first Sky Bet League One success of 26/27, we welcome the U’s to King Power Stadium for a 3pm BST kick-off.

That success also coincided with the closure of the transfer window, with City able to bring in four new signings on deadline day – Emil Riis, John Lundstram, Kamari Doyle and Warren O’Hora all bolstered Martin’s options in several areas of the pitch.

Speaking during his pre-match press conference on the business done across the summer, the 40-year-old told reporters: We’re really happy with the work we’ve done. I’m delighted with the squad we’ve ended up with.

“I’m really happy and really grateful for all the hard work done throughout the window and their patience with everyone. I think we’ve ended up in a really great place. The additions we’ve made on deadline day will all help us a lot.

“A lot has happened, we have 14 new players. We have a really hungry, healthy squad with really good balance of experience and youth. There was so much to be done and we had to navigate change.

“I’m excited now that they are settled that we can some get more work done. We’ve integrated new players into a completely new environment, new culture and new way of working, trying to change the energy here and the way we’re going to work and the process.

“The squad we’ve ended up with, we’ve added a couple of really experienced guys who have been there and done it. There’s a lot of people who have achieved promotion in the team and then we have some young guys who are super talented and are going to be helped a lot by the other players.

“In terms of position and depth, I’m really happy. In terms of culture and character, I’m so happy. And also in the balance of the squad, in terms of the experience and youth, it’s really exciting.

“Everyone is in a different place. Warren has played a lot of games already because Hibs were embarking on a European campaign. He’s played nine or 10 games already. He’s in a really good place. Kami (Kamari) has played a lot of games for Brighton in their U21s, albeit not recently playing many minutes, he had a full pre-season.

“John is a bit different because he’s been in Turkey knowing he’s going to leave. He hasn’t been involved at all in the games so a lot of his conditioning has been on his own and around the team.

“Emil had an injury in pre-season but is back and has played a couple of 30 minutes. They will all come in and contribute as and when but maybe not all of them straight away.”

Saturday’s opponents have encountered a mixed start to the campaign, picking up one win, one draw and one defeat, while Martin also referenced the importance of continuing the good feeling which has built up within the group over the past weeks, with that now translating to results on the pitch.

“I like them,” he said, analysing Oxford. “I can see what Aaron [Ramsey] is trying to implement and what they are trying to do. They play in a good way and have lot of good players who have been good at this level previously and they’ve got players individually who can hurt you.

“They’ve been unfortunate, they’ve had a lot of control in the games that they’ve played. Definitely two of their results are not quite a fair reflection of the game. He’ll be really pleased with lots of things and frustrated with other things when you’re trying to implement something and you’re new to the group.

“They do have a bit of consistency with their team and the players in it. I’m sure that’s helped him. It’ll be a tough game. We have to make sure it’s the game that we want it to be and implement our way of doing it.

“Seven points in a week, that’s the most important bit. We’ve kept two clean sheets now so we have to build from that. I think we’ve become really hard to play against over the last two weeks, so we have to maintain that.

“We have to bring big energy and try and win the game, it’s as simple as that. It’s at home and back-to-back wins would be huge. We know this and we have to build momentum and energy.

“Hopefully, Tuesday night has settled everyone down and we have to be really hungry for more. It can turn into a really good week for us if we put in another good performance and win the game.”

With a near full squad to choose from, there’s plenty of competition for places, with a strong leadership group who have all led the team in different ways. Will Alves and Harry Howell also both scored their first goals for the Club against Plymouth, having come into the XI.

“Let’s get everyone up to speed and in the same place,” Martin continued. “Conor [Chaplin] captained the team, Harry [Souttar] has captained the team brilliantly in the last few games. Luke Thomas has captained us at certain points.

“Bobby [De Cordova-Reid] leads in his own way and is a really top professional. We’ve a lot of people who can do it looking around the dressing room that we’ve got here. I’m really calm about it.

“We have a leadership group now who are really important for us and behave like captains and have been captains at different times of countries and clubs. It’s a really nice position for us to be in.

“The hardest thing now is leaving people out of the squad. It’s the toughest bit of my job, I’m going to have to leave three or four players off the bench. They all train so well and are such brilliant people, great professionals. At any point, it can change.

“The two wingers who scored on Tuesday hadn’t started on Saturday. You can come out of squads and play the next week. Different games will require different things. Everyone is important and they’ll realise that over the next few weeks.”

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