Bouncebackability One Of Our Biggest Strengths, Says Thomas
- Luke Thomas speaks to LCFC TV ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League match versus Burnley at Turf Moor (6pm GMT kick-off)
- The Academy star could make his 10th Premier League appearance for Leicester City
- Thomas wants the Foxes to show their character and aggressiveness in Lancashire
The England youth international’s 16th appearance across all competitions for the Foxes in 2020/21 came on Sunday, when he played 45 minutes in Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Arsenal at King Power Stadium.
Showing significant maturity and ability well beyond his 19 years, Thomas is yet another City star to rise through the Club’s Academy tiers, and has joined a plethora of young talent in the first team set up over the past six months.
Comfortable at left-back, or in a more advanced left wing-back position, he has also shown his adaptability, but it is the characteristic of bouncebackability that Leicester will most need when they head to Lancashire in midweek, he believes.
“I feel like that’s the main thing that’s keeping us where we are this season,” he told LCFC TV. “Bouncing back from defeats has been a main part of the season and we’ve done that so well so far. Hopefully we can continue to do that on Wednesday by going out there and showing our quality again by winning the game.
“That’s the main thing this season, just moving onto the next game and not looking back at the negatives. Obviously, we have to look back and see what we did wrong, but it’s about moving onto the next game.
“With how fast games come at you, it’s two or three days, so you have to move on quickly and put your focus into the next game. That’s what we’re doing this week.
“We’re having a great season so far but it’s still hard when we lose, because at the moment we’re not losing too many games. That’s what we’re so good at – moving onto the next game and getting a result.
“With the amount of games we’ve had this season, we’ve not had the chance to look back and have negative thoughts about the game before. We’re straight into the next game.
“That’s probably a positive of this season, that we’ve had so many games that you don’t have too many games to look back on and think: ‘Why have we lost that game?’. It’s about moving on, and that’s what we’re looking to do here.”
On Wednesday, Thomas could make his 10th Premier League appearance for his boyhood team, having notched up a total of six this season, which have included wins over Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
The Clarets are City’s next challenge, and Thomas cited Leicester’s capacity to stamp their authority on the match as something that will be integral to collecting their 10th away win of the league campaign.
“We know that Burnley have qualities, we know their style of play and what they’re going to do, so we’ll look at that,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can play our own game. If we do that with high quality, and what we’ve been doing for most of this season, we can go out there and get the win.
“It was in the first couple of games (4-2 win over Burnley in September), and that’s probably what has got us where we are now. We had some great results at the start of the season.
“We gained so many points and that was such a good game, that game. We won 4-2, and we’d gone behind.
Goals: Leicester City 4 Burnley 2
Enjoy the goals from Leicester City's 4-2 Premier League victory over Burnley at King Power Stadium on Sunday evening.
“We bounced back really well and came out on top that day. With our away form at the moment, I feel like we can go out there on Wednesday and do that again.”
While Burnley are known to be a rugged opponent to face, Thomas says most Premier League matches include a degree of physicality that City are forced to contain.
“Every game in the Premier League is a physical game,” he explained. “Anyone can stand up to anyone and be aggressive, like we are.
“We’re such an aggressive team, so I feel like that benefits us in a way. We can be aggressive, we can play and we can show our qualities.
“On our day, we're such a great team. We’ll be looking to go out on Wednesday and show that we can bounce back from defeats.”