Leicester City's rapid counter-attacking game has bamboozled defences during a remarkable ascent to the Premier League summit but manager Claudio Ranieri also credits having bright players as another reason for their success.
Leicester top the division after 25 games, five points ahead of Tottenham and Arsenal, having been relegation candidates 12 months ago.
“If you have intelligent men you can improve the players. You can be a fantastic player but a stupid man and you cannot improve,” Ranieri, in his first season in charge, said. “My players are very intelligent in every situation.”
A 3-1 victory at title rivals Manchester City last weekend again demonstrated the unfashionable club have the belief and momentum to carry them towards a first top-flight crown.
Ranieri’s men face another acid test on Sunday when they visit Arsenal, who inflicted a 5-2 home defeat on Leicester in September.
Ranieri is determined to prevent Leicester’s successful season from being a one-off despite saying the Foxes are “having a strange year”.
The veteran Italian says his aims have not changed since his summer appointment at the King Power Stadium. "When I signed, our objective was clear – to build this team, gradually bringing it to the top spots," Ranieri told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
‘Strange year’
“We know we’re having a strange year, we’re doing well because the big teams haven’t found their rhythm, but our plans won’t change next year beyond what happens at the end of this season.
“We must continue to build to target, in the next three or four years, the top spots in the Premier League and fighting for the Europa League. If we do all this in advance in one year we mustn’t applaud ourselves, next year we’ll start again from scratch.”
Asked about comparisons with the success of smaller clubs in Italy, Ranieri, the former Chelsea, Juventus and Roma manager, replied: “Are we like Foggia, Chievo and Empoli? It’s a similar story for the feelings it provokes, but there isn’t much of a comparison with the three Italian teams from a strictly football point of view. Foggia, Chievo and Empoli were built over time, while we were born immediately.”
Leicester have lost only twice in the Premier League and in Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, who have scored 32 Premier League goals between them, possess two of the players of the season.
“This year Mahrez has given us incredible magic,” Ranieri said. “Technically I don’t know who he resembles, he has immense quality and is our reference point: when we need to create, we give the ball to him.
“Vardy on the other hand has a unique characteristic, he runs at 1,000 miles an hour and always at the same speed.”
