Choudhury Braced For ‘Tricky’ FA Cup Tie

- Hamza Choudhury says Leicester City must deliver a professional display against Wigan Athletic on Saturday
- City host the Latics in the third round of the Emirates FA Cup at King Power Stadium (5:31pm kick-off)
- LCFC Radio’s coverage will begin at 2:31pm with the Pre-Match Pint

Choudhury, who scored his first goal for the Football Club in superb fashion during the New Year’s Day victory at Newcastle United, will be hoping to line-up against a Wigan side who he faced on two occasions while on loan at Burton Albion earlier in his career.

While Wigan occupy a spot in the Championship’s relegation zone, they earned their first win in 14 outings on Wednesday after beating Birmingham City 3-2 at St. Andrew’s Stadium.

“These cup games are so important to us,” Choudhury told LCFC TV. “I think the gaffer and the players highlighted that we want to be successful and being successful means winning trophies, so games like Saturday, and the Carabao Cup, are really important to us.

“We take them really seriously. Even just winning those games and building momentum in the league and carrying it through to the cup and back to the league is really important. Hopefully, we’ll get a really good result on Saturday.

“The FA Cup has a lot of magic about it and it can be tricky playing against sides you’re not used to playing, whether you’re playing a different game and have different tactics that we’re not used to, so I think it can be tricky going into these games, but I think with the professionalism in the side we’ve got, we should get through to the next round.

“We go into every game knowing our game plan, playing with high intensity and high tempo, so if we go into games like that with the quality that we’ve got, we should hopefully get through to the next round.”

Academy graduate Choudhury has featured 16 times for the Foxes in all competitions this season, and says he is thriving off the confidence that has been instilled in him by manager Brendan Rodgers.

Choudhury said: “For me, personally, it’s been a massive learning curve this year so far under the manager and the new style of football that we’re playing has benefitted me a lot and taught me a lot about the game. I’m just enjoying learning and getting better every day.

“In training he’s always on at me to get on the ball, be comfortable, have a personality and express yourself, so when you’ve got a manager like that telling you you’re good enough to do it, it gives you a lot of confidence going into games like yesterday (vs. Newcastle) or West Ham before that.

“You go out onto the pitch thinking about everything he’s told you and it gives you a lot of confidence to go out, be comfortable and show your personality.”

All times GMT.