DREAM MAKER
Schmeichel is up for the cup again but says Foxes must stay hungry for success
KASPER SCHMEICHEL has urged his Leicester teammates not to be afraid to chase more success.
The FA Cup and Community Shield winners return to cup action tonight in the Europa League, taking on Napoli at home as they aim to top Group C and go straight to the last 16.
If they finish runners-up, the Foxes will go into a knockout round against a third-place side from the Champions League group stages.
The eventual winners of the trophy will earn an automatic place in next season’s Champions League group stage.
Goalkeeper and captain Schmeichel
(above, lifting the
2016 Premier League trophy and last season’s FA Cup) has urged Brendan Rodgers’ men to be bold.
He said: “Football is about winning trophies and we did that. We are in a very good place and we’ve had a lot of recent success, but that means you have a choice.
“Are you content with that or do you want to progress and move on? That’s what this club wants to do.
“The club continues to show it in the training ground, the expansion of the stadium and the transfer market.
“That’s the most important thing to me, when you are in an organisation that’s had success, that the hunger is still there.
“You cannot become complacent and timid. That’s when you take the foot off the gas. We have always got to be looking for what’s next,” added Schmeichel (above right). We cannot use the past for anything – that past is done. We are looking to improve every day and this season is another opportunity.
“There are top class sides in this competition and others coming in from the Champions League. But looking into our dressing room I am always very confident.”
Rodgers has a fullstrength squad to choose from apart from long-term absentees James Justin and Wesley Fofana.
Belgium midfielder Youri Tielemans (left) has put a question mark over his future by admitting he is keeping his options open, with his current deal running out in 2023.
Contract talks are continuing but Tielemans, who cost a club-record £35million from Monaco in 2019, refuses to be rushed amid interest from Manchester United and Liverpool.
Boss Rodgers said: “What I know is I’ve got a player who is so committed, one of the best professionals I have ever worked with as a manager.
“Every day he has come in, he is a top-class professional.
“In my time here he has shown his importance to how we work.
“Because of his professionalism, Youri won’t change, whether he has five years, four years or six months of contract left.”
VLADIMIR COUFAL says West Ham will not wow the rest of Europe with flair, but will do some damage, with their fighting spirit.
Fan favourite Coufal admits he is not exactly the easiest on the eye when it comes to Premier League full-backs.
But the Czech Republic international believes every team needs a trier and insists West Ham are packed full of them.
The Hammers play their first ever Europa League group stage game tonight against Dinamo Zagreb.
And Coufal said: “It is very important for me that the fans are positive about me as a player.
“I’m the kind of player who needs to work hard on the pitch and I need to fight with my opponents.
“I’m not so good as others, like Latin American players, but everyone cannot be the same. You need different kinds of players on the pitch.
“We have very hard-working players. For example, Andriy Yarmolenko (right), Tomas Soucek, Pablo Fornals. Craig Dawson is in the
GROUP C, 8PM GROUP H, 5.45PM
Coufal says the Hammers will not be pretty ... but could end up in
the final
gym every day after breakfast, every day he goes to work for himself.
“It is not just about me, every second player at West Ham works hard for the team. I will do my best for the team and so will the other players.”
Only two other Premier League defenders have made more tackles in the top flight this season than Coufal, who personifies West Ham’s grit.
And few at the club have as much European experience as the 29-year-old, who has played 36 games in this competition and 12 in the Champions League.
But the former Slovan Liberec and Slavia Prague defender believes they will not be overawed by their first taste of the Europa League group stage.
Coufal, whose side qualified for the competition with a surprise sixth-placed finish last season, said: “I hope it will be even better than last year.
“It’s the first time in Europe again for a long time, but we can be successful. In my opinion, we can go close and go to the final. I would like to win the Europa League this season for the West Ham fans, so let’s see how we will go.”