Tielemans: Push Yourself Even Harder

- Leicester City travel to Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday (4:30pm kick-off)
- The Foxes have won their first two matches of the 2020/21 league season
- Midfielder Youri Tielemans is looking forward to tackling Pep Guardiola's men at Etihad Stadium
- The Belgium international also discusses the performances of City's Belgium contingent

The Foxes head to Manchester on Sunday for a 4:30pm kick-off after winning both of their opening Premier League games - against West Bromwich Albion and Burnley - so far this term.

Guardiola's men, meanwhile, have played just once in the league this season, securing an impressive victory away at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Tielemans is under no illusions about the challenge.

"It's a real test but we try and focus on our game and try to improve our game," he told LCFC TV. "We'll be ready for that game on Sunday. It will be a tough test, but we have to be able to respond in a good way.

"You know you're playing one of the best teams in the league, so you try and push yourself even harder than what you usually do. But I think we just have to improve our game and be ready for Sunday.

"We've started well, two wins out of two, so I think it can't be much better. Every day, we try and work hard on the training ground to improve our game.

"It wasn't perfect, but I think it's getting where we want to be. So it's really good that we got the results, even though we know we have some things to improve."

Tielemans already had fellow countryman Dennis Praet for company at the Football Club before the summer signing of full-back Timothy Castagne - and the Belgian says they compliment each other well.

Both Praet and Castagne have opened their accounts in front of goal for the Foxes this season, while Tielemans himself has delivered two impressive performances in midfield too.

"Yes, it's really good," the 23-year-old explained. "Obviously, we know each other from the national team and I've played against him when I was in Belgium.

Gallery 25 Sep 2020

First Team Training: Manchester City

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"We know each other from a long time [ago] and with Dennis as well in between, we can have a good connection in between us three so it's really good for the team.

"I think we play with a lot of confidence, with a lot of freedom on the pitch and you can see that and the players around us make it easy as well.

"We try and have a good connection between each other and bring it over to the other guys and and try and make a good mix of it and to, like I said, play with freedom and confidence."

Having already scored seven goals in their opening two matches in the Premier League, Tielemans says the ambition is always to improve the team's record in front of goal on a season-by-season basis.

"I think we scored a lot of goals last season as well," he added. "But it's true that you want to improve on that, you always want to score and score more goals than the previous seasons.

"Especially if you can score your goals [and] try and not concede goals, it's even better."

All times BST.