Sports

Ranieri: Why I benched Vardy for Musa

Published

8 years ago

October 24, 2016

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri has defended his decision to play Super Eagles assistant captain Ahmed Musa ahead of the team’s top striker Jamie Vardy against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Vardy, who scored 24 goals in last season’s title-winning campaign, came on as a second-half replacement as Ahmed Musa, Shinji Okazaki and Christian Fuchs wrapped up the Foxes’ first Premier League victory for over a month.

as the Foxes juggle their Champions League campaign having beaten Copenhagen 1-0 last week.

“It’s normal because we have to play so many matches. All the matches are important and when you see Okazaki and Musa in training I have to put them on the pitch,” Ranieri said.

“It wasn’t (because) of injury, if he was injured he wouldn’t have come with me on the bench. I don’t know if he needed a rest but if I don’t have Shinji, Musa and (Leonardo) Ulloa maybe I have to play him but when you have some good players it’s right to have a rest.

“Always I tinker, when we play every few days it’s important to choose the right player, this time I left Vardy and (Marc) Albrighton out.”

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