After watching his Leicester City side stroll to three points at St James' Park on Saturday afternoon, Claudio Ranieri has made no secret of his 'pride' when watching his troops.
With the Foxes currently topping the Barclays Premier League table with an astounding total of 28 points, the former Chelsea boss has gained plenty of admirers since taking the reins at the King Power Stadium in the summer. However, the Italian has given most of the credit to his players following their 3-0 success against Steve McClaren's Magpies.
Ranieri reveals his pride in his players
On the afternoon, it was goals from Jamie Vardy, Leonardo Ulloa and Shinji Okazaki that swung the tie in the Midlanders' favour but Ranieri has decided to praise his whole squad. Labelling the performance as "incredible and fantastic", it was clear to see that the 64-year-old was delighted with the Foxes' latest victory.
Also stating that on the whole, that all of team played well, the experienced boss appeared to agree with the opinion that it was his team's most complete squad performance of the whole campaign so far despite the fact that the game was admittedly "not easy".
A great achievement
Nevertheless, although initially refusing to highlight specific performances from the victory, the ex-Monaco boss was incapable of escaping questions about the current Premier League top-goalscorer, Jamie Vardy. After witnessing the former Fleetwood Town frontman net his 13th goal of the season against Newcastle United, Ranieri was full of praise for the 28-year-old striker.
With his strike at St James' Park, Vardy equalled the record set by Ruud van Nistelrooy of scoring in 10 consecutive Premier League games and his boss couldn't have been happier. After the match, Ranieri revealed he was 'very happy' with the speedy striker's display and at one point even compared him to him to legendary Fiorentina striker Gabriel Batistuta for his 'great achievement'.
Very focused on our goal
On the other hand, as always, the experienced manager was not allowing himself to get carried away as Leicester climbed to the summit of the Premier League table. Implying that the current position of his squad is "not important", Ranieri instead focused on the "28 fewer points" that his squad need to gain to achieve their target of 40 points.