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Claudio Ranieri ready to forgive Leicester's leaky defence

Claudio Ranieri insists he will forgive Leicester's leaky defence even if they continue to concede.

The Foxes go to Norwich on Saturday with neither side having kept a clean sheet in the Premier League this season.

Leicester have shipped 14 goals while Norwich have conceded 12 in their seven games so far.

Boss Ranieri had offered to buy his players pizza when they managed a shut out, but the 63-year-old admitted he would accept victory at the cost of a clean sheet.

"I'm an Italian but I'm a strange Italian," he said. "I would never take 0-0 beforehand. With all opponents, I always say the name doesn't matter.

"At the beginning I offered the players a pizza because I want to stimulate my players because, since I've been here, only once, in a friendly match, have we maintained a clean sheet.

"This is our weakness, but it's also important to score one more goal that the other team."

Norwich boss Alex Neil was just five years old when Ranieri started his managerial career at Italian amateur side Vigor Lamezia in 1986.

The Canaries have impressed on their return to the Premier League and would go above Leicester with a two-goal win.

And Ranieri has told Neil, 34, to soak up the experience of his first year in the top flight after Norwich won last season's Sky Bet Championship playoffs.

"You have to live the experience," he said. "It's like parents. They can say 'be careful of this' but it's your life and you have to understand for yourself what happens in the world.

"It is important to maintain the same passion. He is young and full of passion."

Jamie Vardy, the league's six-goal top scorer, will play on despite two broken bones in his wrist while Nathan Dyer has returned to training after a knee injury but will not feature in Norfolk.