Leicester City have made an excellent start to life back in the Championship.
The Foxes enter the international break at the top of the standings, having won 10 of their first 11 league games.
Enzo Maresca’s side defeated Stoke City 2-0 at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, with Kelechi Iheanacho and Jamie Vardy scoring in each half.
Leicester City are already ten points clear of third-placed Preston North End, and Maresca has had the best start of any manager in the club’s history after 11 games.
The Foxes are back in action in just under two weeks time when they make the trip to face in-form Swansea City at the Swansea.com Stadium, and as the countdown continues until the Championship resumes, we rounded up all the latest Leicester news
Maresca shares Iheanacho/Vardy plan
Maresca has rotated between Iheanacho and Vardy up front this season, with the former starting against Stoke on Saturday after the latter had started the previous two games.
Iheanacho and Vardy have been in excellent form this season, with both scoring five goals so far, and Maresca insists switching between the pair is the right way to get the best out of them.
“That’s why we’re attempting to (switch them around).” Kele was probably unhappy to be on the bench the other night. But he came on and was great. Jamie was unhappy to be on the bench today since they want to play all the time. But he came on and scored, and he was delighted,” Maresca told Leicestershire Live.
“To be competitive, you need two players for each position to compete against each other.” Finally, we can select one of them.
“We forgot Wout (Faes), Stephy (Mavididi), Jamie, and Wilfred (Ndidi) here.” JJ (James Justin) was always playing, so we had to be cautious. But they can’t see playing 46 games. It’s not possible.
“That’s why we try to (switch them around). The other night, Kele was probably not happy to be on the bench. But he came on and was fantastic. Today, because they want to play always, Jamie was not happy to be on the bench. But he came on and scored and was happy,” Maresca told Leicestershire Live.
“To be competitive, you need two players for each position so they can compete between them. In the end, we can choose one of them.
“Here we left out Wout (Faes), Stephy (Mavididi), Jamie, Wilfred (Ndidi). JJ (James Justin) was playing always so we have to be careful. But they cannot think to play 46 games. It’s impossible
At the moment, how football is, no human being can play 46 games at the same level. Because we are looking for a high level, we try to change. Maybe next time, I’ll make six changes, we’ll lose and I’ll be wrong. But we have to make those decisions.”
Souttar’s eyes widen upon his return.
Defender Harry Souttar made his first league start of the season against former club Stoke on Saturday.
The 24-year-old, who joined the Foxes for a fee of £15 million from the Potters in January, had been out of favour at the start of the campaign, and he revealed he was delighted to be back in the team.
“I was absolutely buzzing to be back in, obviously I played a cup game a couple of weeks ago (against Liverpool), but that was my first league start of the season. Just absolutely over the moon to be honest with you,” Souttar told Leicestershire Live.
“I didn’t know much about it until I was told I was on the team and I was in, and I was just so happy to be out there with the boys again.” Obviously, we’ve had a great start to the season and another win on the weekend, which puts us in a great position heading into the break. And, ideally, we can keep it up for the rest of the season.”
