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Claudio Ranieri has warned his multi-million pound stars they have a month to claim a place in his "first eleven" or face a long season on the bench.
After once again making wholesale changes to his starting line-up, bringing in seven new faces from the midweek Champions' league defeat, Ranieri's mix-and-match policy only worked thanks to sub Hernan Crespo in a 2-1 win at Middlesbrough they did not deserve.
Now he is anxious to bed down his strongest team for an assault on Europe and the Premiership.
Ranieri admitted that following two months of experimenting he may now have to settle on his best eleven in a bid to establish his team alongside Arsenal and Manchester United.
"Maybe in a month I will have my first eleven. At the moment there is no best eleven. It is the one that I pick to play. The beauty is I can change my players and change the system," he says. Ticketmaster
Ranieri tried to ease the pressure on his team by insisting: "People still say we are getting close to Manchester and Arsenal but I say no. Just because the table says so doesn't mean it is true. We are working to get there but we are not there yet.
"We are not yet like those two, but we do have team spirit and a fighting spirit that helped us in this game. But we have got to improve on our tactics."
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Ranieri left 46 million pounds of players on the bench and it took sub Crespo
to head home from Damien Duff's cross to claim the three points.
Duff had earlier set up Eidur Gudjohnsen, making only his third start, for the opener, before Boro struck their leveller 20 seconds into the second half through Szilard Nemeth.
Ranieri said: "Crespo is a perfect example. He is only 60 per cent fit, no more than that. He is trying to understand the English league, the movement and everything. Sometimes he makes sprints and doesn't get the ball. I say to him don't worry, you are learning about us and we are learning about you. We just need time. Ticketmaster
"It was hard because they scored seconds into the second half and put us under pressure.
"But I put
on Adrian Mutu and Joe Cole and they helped. Boro were better than us in the
second half. It was a difficult game and that's what you get at Boro."