Claudio Ranieri reckons winning against Stoke at home

Claudio Ranieri reckons winning against Stoke at home was critical for the Foxes as they are going into a tough schedule of games where they have to face the Reds, the Gunners and the Sky Blues in succession.

Beating Stoke means that Leicester is leading the points table by some margin now and even if they drop some points against the big boys in the coming games, it would still keep them in the title race.

On the other hand, if they had not fetched full points on Saturday evening, it would not have left them in that strong a position moving forward. So, Ranieri was a happy man with the positive result that was achieved at the King Power Stadium.

What was even more pleasing for the boss was that his best player, Jamie Vardy, who had been on a goalless run for the last one and half months, was able to find the back of the net again.

However, as per Ranieri, Vardy’s lack of goals was not getting him worried at all as he knew the Englishman had got all the goods and it was just about one shot before he could be back on a roll.

In his interview after the game, Ranieri said, “I had conveyed to Jamie that he shouldn’t put too much thought into it and just keep doing the hard yards as he is the best player in the team and he is the one whom the others follow.”

“He would, of course, be feeling nice to have got one on the score sheet because at the end of the day, you want goals as a forward, but, as far as I am concerned, I never saw it as a matter of concern that he wasn’t scoring.”