Leicester boss Nigel Pearson concedes it is difficult to keep all of his players happy as part of a big squad. He said in the Leicester Mercury: "In terms of keeping players happy, I accept it is impossible to keep them all happy but it is important to show a level of fairness, and that the selection process has a rationale behind it.
"If you do that correctly, you have a better chance of keeping people on side.
"I am not here to be the players' friend. I am here to be the manager of the football club and it is my job to make decisions on what I feel is the best side to take on whoever we are playing.
"We have the situation where, potentially, more players are unhappy because they are not involved, but that is a great position for us to be in because it means we have more players to select from and it gives us more options about how we set up.
"The important thing is the players recognise we do need to have options.
"But I don't expect players to be happy if they are not involved. If you have players who are happy not to be involved, then you probably have not selected the right players to be a part of the set-up.
"It can change quickly. For the first game of the season, the team pretty much picked itself, but now, of course, we have very few players unavailable through injury or suspension.
"Because of the differences in the loan rules between the Premier League and the Championship, you have to protect yourself and make sure the squad is able to deal with setbacks along the way.
"We are still in the very early days of the season so the players who are possibly not very happy at the moment may not be the players who are not happy towards the end of the season.
"Things change very quickly and the players have to be ready to take their opportunity when they get it.
"If you speak to any manager they would say the same type of thing. It is not about keeping them happy, it is about us all having the common goal.
"I accept that from time to time I will be dealing with one or two players who are not particularly enchanted with me or the situation. But it is a team game and that is what they have to remind themselves of."
