Craig Shakespeare: 'Leicester City have refocused'

Leicester City caretaker boss Craig Shakespeare has said that his side have "refocused" themselves as they build up to their first match since manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked.

The Premier League champions parted company with the title-winning manager earlier this week following a run of five consecutive defeats that leaves them just one point clear of the relegation zone.

Shakespeare will be in temporary charge of the troubled team when they host Liverpool at the King Power Stadium on Monday night, and he is looking to tap into the same mindset that saw the Foxes win seven of their last nine games under Nigel Pearson to survive in the 2014-15 campaign.

"It would be nice to get that again. It was a great time then in terms of we were written off. We are not written off now. There are enough games for this squad to win football matches and that is what we aim to do. In terms of getting teams prepared, I'd like to think my man-management style can do that. There are enough games there and this squad are good enough to get themselves out of this - that will be the message," he told reporters.

"Momentum is a big word in football. We had that last year. What I would say is they've trained well over the last few weeks especially. We've refocused ourselves. Most definitely [we can survive]. They are frustrated and from speaking to them on a regular basis they are very frustrated with how things have gone this season.

"There is enough talent in that dressing room for us to go on a winning run. There's frustrations with everybody, coaching staff, players, and I think there's lots of reasons why. It's been spoken about at great length, it's missing a player of the calibre of N'Golo Kante. That was a massive miss. History tells us that it's always harder the second year, it's always hard to put a finger on it."

Leicester are yet to even score a goal in the Premier League since the turn of the year, going six matches since last finding the back of the net.