Thursday 6 December 2018 15:37, UK
Shinji Okazaki has revealed the qualities of former boss Claudio Ranieri that could help Fulham to survive in the Premier League.
Ranieri, who led Leicester City to their shock Premier League title win in 2015/16, drew 1-1 with the Foxes in his first meeting with them as Fulham boss.
After the match Okazaki, who formed an impressive partnership with Jamie Vardy in Leicester's title winning season gave an insight into his former manager.
He said: "He's a gent and was a good motivator. He keeps things simple. Tactics are so complicated now, but he focuses on the collective, sticking together, and the fight - those are his strengths.
"He's experienced, he'll never give up and keeps fighting. Even when the opponent may be playing in a better way than us, the players were motivated until the end to get a result."
Ranieri's Fulham took the lead through Aboubakar Kamara and looked poised to win but James Maddison equalised late on for Leicester.
Okazaki played a part in the goal but admitted how difficult it was coming up against his old boss.
He said: "It was a very tough match. The opponent worked very collectively; they seemed to know our style and their defence was very compact.
"We had a good opening 20 minutes because we used our width, but afterwards they knew that they were much better and were able to be very technical in their play."
