LET’S WIN IT FOR VICHAI
Foxes boss Puel wants cup success to honour tragic owner
LEICESTER boss Claude Puel says his side want to win the League Cup for their late chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
The Frenchman revealed that the Foxes’ owner made cup success a priority this season.
And Puel believes that his team can honour the Thai businessman (below) by lifting a trophy after he was killed in a helicopter crash outside the King Power Stadium last month.
Puel’s men face Southampton tonight in a game that was postponed in the aftermath of the tragedy. And the former Saints chief says his players will not be easing off despite a break from Premier League action.
“We have to perform and want to finish in the top half of the table, as high as possible,” said Puel.
“Then we have to look at winning something with the cups. It’s important to play all these games with the right desire, good aggression and mentality.
“We have the squad to maintain a good level. It will be a good chance for the squad to perform together and to win something.
“We know the importance of winning something, so the cup will be important for us. The chairman liked it a lot and it will be our desire to try to perform.
“We know the difficulties in the cup, but it’s a good motivation. Before this we had a good togetherness but, after an event like this, we have more focus on the objective.
“It’s a common aim. The most important thing is to play together, to perform and to pay tribute to our chairman at the end. It’s our responsibility and I hope we can have this in our head all the time.”
Puel led Southampton to the League Cup Final two seasons ago, losing out to Manchester United at Wembley.
But he has struggled to win over some Leicester fans, although he insists his side are still improving.
“The objective is the same since the start of the season,” he added.
“We know that we have to perform and improve together.
“I’m happy with the performances. We just have to find a clinical edge sometimes.”
vPREMIER LEAGUE BURNLEY (1) 1 NEWCASTLE (2) 2 Vokes 40 Mee (og) 4 20,628 Clark 23 F A Pts 40 5 35 26 5 33 23 11 30 28 11 28 28 16 27 20 15 22 20 21 21 22 18 20 17 17 20 18 17 18 12 15 16 14 19 15 11 16 12 14 22 12 8 22 10 8 17 9 13 27 9 10 24 8 11 26 8 14 33 8
P W D
Man City 13 11 2 Liverpool 13 10 3 Tottenham 13 10 0 Chelsea 13 8 4 Arsenal 13 8 3 Everton 13 6 4
Man Utd 13 6 3 Bournemouth 13 6 2 Watford 13 6 2 Leicester 13 5 3 Wolves 13 4 4 Brighton 13 4 3 Newcastle 13 3 3 West Ham 13 3 3 Huddersfield 13 2 4
C Palace 13 2 3 Burnley 13 2 3 Southampton 13 1 5 Cardiff 13 2 2 Fulham 13 2 2 BOSTIK PREMIER Carshalton Ath 0 Dorking 0 Haringey A Merstham A (abandoned, power failure) L 0 0 3 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 6 7 7 7 8 8 7 9 9
3RD TEST, Colombo
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2ND TEST, Dubai
Pakistan 418-5 dec (Haris Sohail 147, Babar Azam 127 no) v New Zealand 90 (Yasir Shah 8-41) & 131-2
(7.45 unless stated)
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