Leicester’s strength in depth boosts Ranieri’s rotation plan

REUTERS – Manager Claudio Ranieri believes he can confidently rotate his thin squad following Sunday’s 2-2 FA Cup draw with Tottenham Hotspur despite eight changes to their starting line-up.

Leicester are now winless in four games in all competitions but the Foxes, despite being without Premier League’s joint top scorer Jamie Vardy and midfielder Riyad Mahrez, held their own against a strong Spurs side.

Ranieri hailed the strength in depth of his side and felt they were unlucky not to win after Harry Kane buried an 89th minute penalty, given for a handball by Nathan Dyer.

“They worked so well – very, very hard. I had eight new players on the pitch and I watched a good team – that’s what I want,” Ranieri told the club website (www.lcfc.com).

“It’s (the squad) very, very strong. That’s what I want to build. I want to build 22 or 23 players at the same level. Then I can change the players and still the team can continue in the same way.

“I think we made a very good performance and maybe we deserved to win because to concede two minutes from the end is very unlucky.”

Leicester, who are second in the Premier League table and two points behind leaders Arsenal after 20 games, travel to meet fourth-placed Tottenham in the league on Wednesday, followed by a trip to bottom side Aston Villa on Saturday.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)