Stowell: Foxes Fitness Improving
- Mike Stowell points to the fitness benefits of Leicester City's trip to Wolves
- The Foxes fell to a 1-0 pre-season friendly defeat in the Black County on Saturday
- Several of City's first team regulars of last season featured at Molineux
- Next up, it's Burton Albion at Pirelli Stadium on Tuesday night
Ivan Cavaleiro’s long-range effort gave Wolves a 1-0 victory at Molineux but Stowell, City’s first team and goalkeeper coach, insists pre-season is all about fitness and conditioning.
“Fitness-wise, we’re definitely where we want to be,” he said at full-time.
“They’ve had a really rigorous training programme and they are in a good place in that way. The form will come.
"You want to win games, we’re out there to win games, but pre-season is about getting your fitness and that’s what we’re looking for at this stage.
“We came up against an interesting 4-3-3 formation, which could be Arsenal’s in two weeks’ time. It was a 90-minute workout.
"We’ve had a really busy period travelling to Hong Kong for two incredible games there and this week we’ve had three games.”
It was a much-changed line-up for the Foxes in the West Midlands following a 0-0 stalemate at MK Dons the evening before which was preceded by a 1-0 win at Luton Town on Wednesday.
Stowell added: “We’ve had to split the squad and today it was 90 minutes for every player. Wolves are a decent team and they were a little bit ahead of us on fitness.
"But it’s not about winning games at this stage, it’s about forming combinations among the players and getting a good workout.
"I thought we started really well and had chances. If we weren’t creating chances then I’d be more worried.
"You get no prizes for winning pre-season games, it’s all about winning when we start.
“Last night the lads played 90 minutes. Today the lads played 90 minutes. We’ve got two games now to finely tune it.
"Craig will have his ideas about his starting XI already and it’s time for the people on the fringes to push to get into that starting XI.”
Stowell also provided an update on Islam Slimani, who had to be replaced by Shinji Okazaki shortly before the half-time interval.
“It was a very nasty cut,” he added.
“It was a freak accident and the blade of the boot has cut him right at the back of his knee. There was no way he was going back out there so he had to be stitched up.
"Hopefully he’ll be back out there against Burton.”