Ranieri urges Vardy, Mahrez to raise game

LONDON: Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri wants Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez to rediscover their form from the club’s title-winning season as the champions battle to remain in the Premier League.

Leicester’s top scorer in 2015-16 with 24 goals, Vardy has found the net only five times since the start of the campaign.

Mahrez won a glut of individual awards after scoring 17 goals and supplying 11 assists last season, but the Algeria winger has scored only three times this term.

With the reigning champions just a point above the relegation zone ahead of Sunday’s trip to fellow strugglers Swansea City, Ranieri has held talks with the pair in a bid to get them firing again.

“I have spoken with Riyad and I have spoken with Jamie and we know,” Ranieri told a pre-match press conference on Friday.

“They link together well. If you see how many goals they scored and how many passes they made last season, but this time no.

“I say to Riyad: ‘Come back to last season, come back.’ He is trying and he is positive and I am very happy when he is positive. I look at him smiling and that is OK. He is very important and now he is very concentrated on the last part of the season. I am very hopeful.

“Jamie works hard for the team, but this season we have scored very few goals and scoring three goals in one match (against Derby County in the FA Cup on Wednesday) was amazing and I hope this is good for the future,” he added.

Leicester have lost their last four league games without scoring and risk becoming England’s first defending champions to be relegated since Manchester City in 1938. — AFP