- Claude Puel labelled Leicester City’s performance against Valencia as their ‘best game of pre-season’
- The Foxes drew 1-1 with the Spanish side at King Power Stadium on Wednesday
- Puel underlined the efforts of his Academy stars following the fixture
The Foxes drew 1-1 with the La Liga outfit at King Power Stadium, with Kelechi Iheanacho on target before Daniel Parejo equalised shortly after in the first period.
City’s pre-season concludes on Saturday, when they face Lille OSC at Stade Pierre-Mauroy – a fixture that we be shown live on LCFC TV.
“I think it was our best game [of pre-season],” he told LCFC TV. “The listening, the solidity, the play against a great team. I’m happy about the performance from all of the players.
“Experienced players, young players, the Academy also, it’s promising to see this quality and mentality. I’m happy about this work.
“We know we’ve had a lot of problems since the beginning of pre-season with some injuries and a lot of international players coming back step by step. We needed to make a lot of rotation to protect the players in a friendly game.
“The situation is difficult, it was a strong challenge for us to try and manage all of these things. We will see, we’re trying to find a good solution, like Jose [Mourinho] from [Manchester] United, it’s the same thing.
“It’s tough because we had 10 international players to work in this condition, to find them in a good mentality and good fitness. It’s crazy I think for the first game it will be tough to find a good balance.”
Puel was pleased with the way his players acquitted themselves against Valencia, not least Iheanacho, who has now scored in his last two outings for Leicester.
“I think he came back with a good mentality, of course he cannot play for a long time at the moment with good fitness levels,” Puel continued. “I’m happy about the mentality of the players. They’ve come back with a good spirt and with a fighting spirit.
“I’m happy about this, but we needed to make attention and protect them with rotation and to work on their fitness step by step. We will see what’s happened. I was happy also, for example about Demarai Gray.
“He played as striker in the last friendly games, he made fantastic things. We have good players, good quality, good young players, good balance between experienced players and young players. I hope we can continue this good work and keep the good togetherness.”
A number of Development Squad and Academy stars featured in the second period, and Puel was happy with the way they performed in front of the King Power Stadium crowd.
He added: “I think with all of the problems that we have in the squad – the injured players and players not available or without good fitness – it was a good opportunity to give game time for some Academy players.
“I’m happy for the performance – they brought the togetherness and freshness. It was a nice thing to see all these young players giving their best tonight.
“I think it was an opportunity and a fantastic moment for them, for the future. It’s encouraging for them to continue to work.”