Albrighton's Pre-Newcastle Positivity

- Marc Albrighton previews Leicester City's home clash with Newcastle United on Friday
- The Magpies visit King Power Stadium for an 8pm BST kick-off in the Premier League
- Albrighton says the Foxes will approach the encounter with a positive mindset
- City's No.11 also discusses the challenges of playing against teams with deep defences

The Foxes were frustrated at St. Mary's Stadium last Friday with a 1-1 draw despite playing against 10 men for much of the encounter, but it nonetheless stretched their unbeaten run to four matches in all competitions at a pivotal time of the season. 

Newcastle are next up for third-placed City at King Power Stadium this Friday and, while Albrighton was keen to point out the threats the North East side possess, Leicester's No.11 believes the squad will be keen to get back to winning ways as soon as possible.  

"We’re excited, it’s a great opportunity for us," the 31-year-old told LCFC TV earlier this week, previewing the clash with Steve Bruce's Magpies. 

"We've had four games since the semi-final, with West Brom, Palace, Southampton and now Newcastle, and these are games we targeted. Obviously, with the point at Southampton, it wasn’t ideal, especially in the circumstances, but it’s a point towards where we want to get to.

"To win four games in a row in the Premier League would have been incredible because it’s such a hard thing to do, no matter who you’re playing, and that wasn’t to be. Hopefully, we can go into the Newcastle game and put things right and get that final win."

Leicester's home form was boosted by back-to-back wins over West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace at the end of April and Albrighton hopes that is a trend they will be able to continue against Newcastle later this week.

"I know we struggled at home early on," he added. "We had a couple of tough results, but I think we’ve come a long way this season. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve become a better side as the season’s gone on, I do think.

"Whether results show that or not, I do feel like we’ve got a lot more to our game now and this game against Newcastle will be a huge game for us.

"We know it’s not going to be easy. We’ve seen them give teams a real good go in recent weeks. We saw them at Anfield only a few weeks ago and they probably deserved more out of that than the point they got.

"It’s going to be very difficult, as they all are, but we’re more than capable of getting a result and it would be an important three points if we were to do so."

Although Southampton were forced into defending deep last week, following an early dismissal for Jannik Vestergaard, the Foxes have regularly had to battle through deep blocks in order to win three points this season.

It is yet to be seen what the circumstances will be on Friday, but Albrighton says Leicester will be prepared for anything: "We’ve become accustomed to that in recent months. It’s something we’ve had against a lot of teams. We will have a lot of the ball and we just have to be patient.

"A lot of the games aren’t won in the first half an hour or 45 minutes, it’s a 90-minute game and, if it takes us to the 90th or 95th minute to get a 1-0, then so be it. I do think we’ll have a lot of the ball and we’ll have to be very creative in the final third to break them down.

"A lot of it is based around patience. Once you start getting frustrated that you can’t get through the opposition, that’s when the opposition notice a weakness in you. It’s about moving the ball from side to side and getting the opposition running.

"If they want us to have all the ball, then we need to make them work and we need to use it well and I think with the quality we’ve got in the squad, there’s no reason why we can’t create enough chances to put a couple away and win the game."

Callum Wilson, Allan Saint-Maximin, Joelinton, Joseph Willock and Andy Carroll are just a few of the danger men at Newcastle's disposal and Albrighton is aware of the threats the visitors could pose, but says preparations are already underway at LCFC Training Ground to handle them.

"We’ve played a lot of teams in recent weeks that have got that breakaway on the counter and Newcastle have got players who can hurt you," he continued.

"We need to be mindful of that, which we always are. We know their threat and we need to make sure we don’t commit everyone forward and we do have numbers behind the ball. We do know that. We’re experienced enough, all the players, to know when to go and when to stay and who needs to stay."