Ranieri needs Leicester FA Cup flops to be ‘gladiators’

Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri says he needs his players to be ‘soldiers’ and ‘gladiators’ after their FA Cup defeat to League One side Millwall.

The 65-year old says that last year was a completely different story when his players showed determination throughout the season to win the Premier League.

“I want to speak again with them and say, hey, now we have to fight, every match. We want to fight, tell me.

“Because I need the soldiers, I need the gladiators, because Millwall, in turn, showed their fantastic gladiators,” Ranieri said.

“It’s strange this because last season we won for this. To be more determined than the opponent. Play with more heart than the opponent. We could also lose but we fight every match.

“And I want to see this; I want us to come back this way, to fight until the end. And I think this defeat could be good for us because when you lose against a team who is there and fight and you lose, you have to say hey, well done to them, why have we lost?

“We lost for this, this this, this. And then we can take what Millwall show and we can take for us,” he added.

Ranieri conceded that when Millwall got a red card, they showed more character and desire than Leicester and deserved to get the win.

The Italian dismissed the suggestion that making ten changes fior the clash was behind the defeat.

“The first half was a good performance. We know they wanted to counter attack, and tried to do something on corners, set pieces and was normal, we create some good chances but maybe we lost the last pass because maybe the pitch wasn’t so good or maybe they block our shots at goal.

“But I was very satisfied at the first half; we stared not at the same level of the first half, but good, positive. But when they play 10 v 11 they played better than us they showed more character more desire more heart than us at the end they deserved to win. They had one chance they score a goal, it’s all down to them,” Ranieri underscored.