Foxes boss wants new frontman

LEICESTER CITY manager Claudio Ranieri has urged the club’s owners to sign an additional striker in January to capitalise on the club’s incredible Premier League title challenge. The Foxes’ outstanding win over Stoke on Saturday kept them firmly in the race with Arsenal and Manchester City — and Ranieri does not want them to blow a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. His biggest fear is burn-out to current strikers Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okazaki and Leonardo Ulloa unless extra assistance is found, following Andrej Kramaric’s loan move to Hoffenheim. ‘It’s important to have two players for every position and I’d like another striker to give support to the other three — because our strength is playing at high intensity and it’s not possible to play at high intensity for all the season,’ said Ranieri, who has already completed a £5million deal for Ghana defender Daniel Amartey from FC Copenhagen. ‘Everyone is reinforcing or buying players because they want to save their season or they want to win something. We want to maintain our position. ‘I know it’s difficult but we must try. This is a strange league. The big teams are not at the top. There is Leicester. What happened? I don’t know but we want to stay there. I want to bring in players with our spirit.’ Danny Drinkwater, Vardy and Ulloa were on the scoresheet on Saturday. For Vardy, it was a first goal in eight games and Drinkwater, who supplied it with a pass from the halfway line, thinks the timing is ideal. ‘There was never any doubt in the dressing room that Jamie would get his goals again,’ he said. ‘He is a massive danger in this league. You can hit a 50/50 ball and he changes the odds with his pace and hunger. He will score plenty more.’ Stoke boss Mark Hughes admitted: ‘I knew exactly how Leicester were going to play but stopping it happening is more difficult. ‘Vardy is nothing like I was as a striker. He is a hell of a lot quicker!’ Hughes will have to rally his troops for a massive Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool at Anfield tomorrow. Liverpool hold a 1-0 advantage from the first game and there are doubts over Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross, who limped off at The King Power Stadium with a back problem that also affected his hip.