Stoke City manager Alex Neil has claimed that Leicester will be ‘one of the best Championship teams in a long time’.
His side lost to the Foxes 2-0 on Saturday afternoon courtesy of goals from Kelechi Iheanacho and Jamie Vardy.
Neil has been under pressure as manager of the Potters, and with now only one win in his last seven Championship games after the defeat to Leicester, it will only intensify.
Alex Neil hails Leicester
Despite the loss, Neil thought his side put up a good fight.
“I thought our set-up was good,” the Stoke boss told the Leicester Mercury. “I don’t think they had a chance until the goal. The goal is really disappointing from our perspective. Iheanacho is really wide, we just need to get down the line of the ball.
“If we get to half-time and it’s 0-0… Our intention was always late in the game to have a go. You could see why when we did have a go why you don’t come here and try to go toe-to-toe with Leicester. They’ve got some really good players. The minute we squeezed the space, we could hear the coach for them saying: ‘They’ve changed.’
“The minute we changed, they brought on pace at the top end of the pitch. If you’re going to squeeze and try to compress the game, Jamie Vardy at this level is going to cause you all sorts of problems.
“They’ll be one of the best Championship teams in a long time, I think. Just look at the stadium, fans, and players they’ve got. I think they’ve got four internationals that have played for England, I can’t ever remember that having happened anywhere else.”