Yahoo News What Leicester City must do in the Premier League as Burnley relegation causes concern
Leicester City must stick to their philosophy and values in the Premier League, Conor Coady has said, as they bid to bridge the widening gulf between the Championship and the top flight.
Last season’s three promoted clubs have struggled to cope with the step up this term, and the task of survival appears to be growing in difficulty. Manager Enzo Maresca has already outlined that City should not think beyond 17th position when they begin their new campaign in August.
Burnley’s form is a particular focus for City supporters. The Clarets have Vincent Kompany in charge, and, like Maresca, he is heavily influenced by his work alongside Pep Guardiola at Man City. Throughout the season, Championship managers made comparisons between Burnley and Maresca’s side.
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The Clarets stormed to promotion, winning the Championship with 101 points and losing only three times. But they found it difficult to adapt to life in the Premier League and have been relegated back to the second tier.
However, City should not be ripping up the blueprint now they’ve achieved a return to the big time. They have to stick to their guns and keep playing the way they are learning under Maresca, Coady believes, but just with a tweak or two here and there.
“You’re always going to have make little adjustments,” the centre-back said. “It’s important to stick to your philosophy and what you’re good at. I think we’ve shown what we’re good at this year and what’s got us out of the Championship and back into the Premier League.
“It’s important you keep those values. But at the same time, you’ve got to be ready for what’s coming because a lot of those players in that dressing room have played in the Premier League and know how tough it actually is. We’ll be ready for it.
“It’s not important to put targets on where want to be. We’ll just go game by game. We’ll tick them off, making sure we’re ready and prepared for what’s coming because we know it will be so, so hard.
“No matter where we’re at, it would be silly to put a target on it. We’re going into it full of confidence on the back of this season and then we’ll see where we end up.
“As players you think about it straight away because you can’t wait to play in the Premier League. That’s what we want to do. We’ll enjoy where we’re at. The most important thing was to get this club back in the Premier League, and we’ve done it.”
But what City do have that other promoted clubs have not always had in the past is an abundance of Premier League experience. In Coady, Jamie Vardy, Harry Winks, Ricardo Pereira, and Wilfred Ndidi, they have five players with more than 100 Premier League appearances to their name already. That could be pivotal.
“It’s always a big help, having people who have played in the league before, and played in it a lot of times, in order to help the younger boys who perhaps haven’t done it before,” Coady said. “We’re there to push them on.
“In terms of what we’re trying to do and where we’re trying to go, we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing. It’s important we understand how tough it’s going to be, but once we’ve done that, we’ve crossed the first hurdle and we’ll be ready to attack the Premier League. We’ll make sure we work hard and we’ll be ready to go.”
