Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri has defended his the work rate of Jamie Vardy after the striker came under criticism from former England striker Alan Shearer.
Vardy has not scored for in Leicester's past seven games in all competitions as the reigning Premier League champions have just eight points from the first eight Premier League games with four defeats this season -- one more than last term's title-winning campaign.
Premier League record scorer Shearer accused Vardy on Monday of "sulking" and a "lack of effort" in Saturday's 3-0 loss at Chelsea, but Ranieri insisted he gave his striker, who instructions to stay with Blues defender David Luiz.
"I think ex-players can say everything. Shearer is a fantastic scorer but some months you can score, some months you can't," he said.
"If he's speaking about Chelsea, I told Jamie to stay with David Luiz. I wanted to give a point of reference to my players, counter-attack and leave him with David Luiz -- not his fault, it's mine maybe.
"It's important he stays calm, keeps his strength and he will score a goal."
Leicester have conceded fewer goals this campaign, 14, than this time last season, 15, when Ranieri offered to buy the team pizza once they kept a clean sheet.
But the players still held a meeting following their heavy defeat at Stamford Bridge with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was born in Copenhagen, insisting they have solved any issues.
"We've had a chat, things have been said and resolved and we move on," said the Denmark international goalkeeper.
"It's a long season and we've had some bad performances away from home, starting badly and haven't been able to recover. We're confident we can turn this around.
"You look at how we have started over the last few seasons, we haven't been the quickest of starters. It's not a time to worry or panic, we come good in the middle of the season and we become really good towards the end.
"We're looking to keep going and the expectation is something that you lot like to write about."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.