The Potters will be the next team to visit the King Power Stadium, where Enzo Maresca’s team will attempt to maintain its lead atop the Championship standings by winning 10 of their previous 11 games.
According to Stoke manager Alex Neil, Leicester City perfected their squad rebuild to offer themselves a strong chance of advancing immediately to the Premier League.
With nine victories in their first 10 games, City leads the Championship heading into this weekend’s matchup with the Potters. It’s the best start to a second-tier campaign anyone has had in 23 years.
When asked what City has done right that other previously relegated clubs hadn’t, Neil cited the caliber of the team. He thinks City have struck the correct balance between retaining a core of talented players who want to lift the team back up and adding new talent after offloading star players.
At this week’s news conference, Neil stated that the team had a “really strong core of players who have proven to be Premier League quality.” “I know people will argue against that since they were relegated, but I think they were consistently incredibly competitive in the Premier League before that for a significant number of years. Additionally, some new players have been introduced, adding a touch of freshness, and I believe those are the two elements you need to balance out.
“You have to make sure you get the best money you can for lads who want to leave, get good replacements who will compete in the Premier League, at least in the short term, and make sure that the key players who want to be at the club and help the club get back to where it was have a prominent role. They appear to have checked every box and taken every precaution.
With only one victory in their previous seven games, Stoke will enter the King Power Stadium just two points above the relegation zone and dealing with a large number of injuries. Neil is not giving up hope.
It will be a difficult game for us, but I’ve played in games with worse odds than this and yet managed to win, so let’s see how we do.
