Albrighton slams Leicester displays ahead of key week

Marc Albrighton acknowledges Leicester City have fallen well short of expectations as the Premier League champions enter another vital week in their ailing campaign.

Manager Claudio Ranieri was given a vote of confidence on Tuesday after the 3-0 loss to Manchester United made it four top-flight defeats in succession.

With a one-point gap to the relegation zone and fellow strugglers Swansea City their hosts on Sunday, Albrighton wants to see an immediate upturn in performances, starting with Wednesday’s FA Cup fourth-round replay at home to Derby County.

“We need to pick our performances up massively because they’re not good enough at the minute,” the midfielder told the club’s official website. 

“But we’ve got the ability in the side and work rate in the side to come through this. We want to get confidence from each game. 

“We’ve got ourselves in this situation and it’s only us who can get ourselves out of it. The ability is there and the work rate is there so we need to put it all together on a regular basis and win football matches. We’re trying to put things right.

“I think this is a really important week for us because we’ve got a great opportunity against Derby. The atmosphere will be brilliant because it’s a local derby that both teams want to win. 

“We want to progress in the cup and it’s a great chance for us to build a platform and take some confidence into the weekend’s game.”

Ranieri claimed following the club’s vote of confidence that the situation was “not a crisis”.

Only once have the reigning champions been relegated from England’s top flight, Manchester City suffering that fate in 1938.