Knockaert still our knockout
BRIGHTON manager Chris Hughton expects his star player Anthony Knockaert to concentrate on winning points at Leicester rather than trying to prove them.
Knockaert helped the Foxes to promotion to the Premier League in 2014 but lost his place to Riyad Mahrez and made only three topflight starts.
The French winger was sold to Standard Liege in the summer of 2015 but Hughton brought him back to England six months later and he has been a big success at Brighton.
Knockaert, 25, returns to Leicester for the first time today with the promoted Seagulls as the reigning EFL player of the season and with a new five-year contract.
“I’d like to think Anthony doesn’t have a point to prove,” said Hughton.
“He is not that type of lad anyway. He will want to enjoy going back because he will have had a lot of friends there.
“The supporters were very fond of him and I’m sure he will get a good reception.
“But he will also know that it’s very much about the team trying to get a result and we feel that if we get enough things right, we can give ourselves a chance.”
They face a Leicester whose manager Craig Shakespeare has nothing but admiration for the way striker Jamie Vardy has risen from non-League player to international inside five years. Vardy has started the new season with two goals at Arsenal.
“When we first saw him play, we saw the attributes he has today,” said Shakespeare.
“He was a pest on the shoulder of defenders and running behind. He’s had those attributes all through his career.
“It persuaded us to spend £1million on him from non-League which seemed like an awful lot of money. But I never questioned spending that amount – never.”