'Tinkerman' Ranieri wants more of the same at Leicester

LONDON (Reuters) - Claudio Ranieri will always be 'The Tinkerman' but the Leicester City manager just wanted more of the same after another never-say-die performance in the Premier League on Sunday. Sunday's thrilling comeback from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 had the Italian purring at the spirit shown by a battling team now experiencing the dizzy heights of second place overall. Three goals in 17 minutes, with the last headed in by substitute Nathan Dyer in the 89th, kept the Foxes still unbeaten on 11 points from five games and four adrift of Manchester City. Ranieri had switched his formation to good effect after the break but he said continuity was also the key. "It's fantastic. Fantastic spirit, good character. After 2-0, I watched my players but they believed everything was possible. That is the spirit I love," he told Sky Sports television. "It is important to fight until the end of the match...we must play in this way every match. Because we are in this way. If we want to change something, we aren't so good." Former Chelsea boss Ranieri started the season as the manager most likely to be first out of a job but those odds have been turned on their head. With Leicester unbeaten in their last nine Premier League games, it is Jose Mourinho's Chelsea who are currently in danger of slipping into the bottom three. Leicester brought in Ranieri, 11 years after his sacking by Chelsea, as replacement for Nigel Pearson who had masterminded a remarkable escape from relegation last season and there were plenty of doubters. Instead, he has won admirers by resisting too much change. "He's been quite smart in understanding there was something really good in place and just gone in and let it take its own course, adding his own bits and pieces to it," said former Ireland international Niall Quinn, commenting on Sunday's game. "He's added to the spirit of the team. "The way his team played for him in that second half, it just shows you there is something really special in that dressing room and his job isn't now about changing that. His job is about keeping to it." Despite the optimism, Ranieri was keeping his feet on the ground: "At the moment we want to think only of safety," he said, setting 29 points as the primary goal. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)