King calls for Leicester ´statement´ at Anfield

Leicester City midfielder Andy King challenged his team to make a “real statement” with a win over Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.

Claudio Ranieri’s men have collected four points from their opening three games to sit ninth in the table in their Premier League defence.

With a new main stand completed at Anfield, a party-like atmosphere is expected for Liverpool’s first home game of the season.

But King is keen for Leicester to ruin that and show the rest of the league what they are capable of.

“After last season it was always going to be hard. After a few games, whatever we did, people were going to compare to last season and say it’s a slow start,” he said.

“But now we have our first win, we can hopefully get up and running. Winning at Anfield would be a real statement.

“We know it’s going to be tough because they’ve had a good start themselves, but we know if we play the way we can, then we can be a match for anyone.”

Leicester strengthened on deadline day with the signing of Algeria international Islam Slimani from Sporting Lisbon, in a deal reportedly worth a club-record £28million.

King believes the addition of another striker should help Ranieri’s men, while he also backed Jamie Vardy – last season’s hero with 24 league goals.

“Riyad Mahrez speaks very highly of him and he has a great goal record so hopefully he can be a big signing for us,” he said.

“He could take some of the pressure off Vards. The more quality players we can have in the squad then it’s going to help everyone.

“But I don’t think Vards feels the pressure. He’s off the mark now after people said he was in a drought – even after just two games without scoring.

“I’m sure if he can score one in every two or three games then he will be happy.”