An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

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An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers can pick out areas for improvement but was pleased with Leicester City's general performance in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League.

2021-09-17T09:03:52.921Z

An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers can pick out areas for improvement but was pleased with Leicester City's general performance in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League.

2021-09-17T09:03:52.921Z

An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers can pick out areas for improvement but was pleased with Leicester City's general performance in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League.

2021-09-17T09:03:52.921Z

An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers can pick out areas for improvement but was pleased with Leicester City's general performance in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League.

2021-09-17T09:03:52.921Z

An Exciting Game, Says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers can pick out areas for improvement but was pleased with Leicester City's general performance in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League.

2021-09-17T09:03:52.921Z

- Leicester City drew 2-2 with Napoli in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday- The Foxes were two goals to the good, but had to settle for a point in the Group C opener- Manager Brendan Rodgers found many positives in City's performances on the night- He also explained the reasoning behind his substitutions on Filbert Way

The Foxes opened up a two-goal lead on Filbert Way courtesy of efforts from Ayoze Pérez and Harvey Barnes, but a brace from Victor Osimhen rescued a point for the Italian outfit, before Wilfred Ndidi's added-time red card. Patson Daka also had a goal chalked off for offside for City.

Despite losing a lead, Rodgers found much to be enthused by in Leicester's performance and believes the fixture is a good measure for his side as they continue to grow in stature on the European stage.

"It was a really exciting game for the neutral," the Northern Irishman said at full-time. "I was really pleased with the team in terms of the mentality, the goals we scored and the resilience we showed in a lot of the game.

"You can see the youthfulness of the team at this level. We were against a really top-class side and that was a really good measure for us.

"People said before the game that Napoli are arguably the favourites for the competition with all the experience and quality they have, but we were very competitive.

"We’re disappointed to lose the goals, but there’s still lots for us to be happy about. It’s now for us to go away and look at it and analyse where we can be better."

Çağlar Söyüncü was introduced at the break, to replaced Jonny Evans, who picked up a knock, while Youri Tielemans also emerged at half-time. Later on, James Maddison, Ademola Lookman and Jamie Vardy also featured from the bench.

Explaining the reasoning behind those changes, Rodgers added: "Jonny came off with an injury so we had to go for Çağs.

"The game, in the first half, with our system, we were down a man in midfield. We were playing with two strikers and, even though we got the goal, I didn’t think it allowed us to keep the ball like you need to at this level of the game.

"By bringing on the third midfield player, that allowed us to gain a better control of the game. Patson can play just to the side but still get into the box and be effective as a striker.

"That was the reasoning behind that. Bouba (Boubakary Soumaré) was playing his first minutes of the season, so he was starting to tire about 10 minutes before we took him off, but we let him push on. We put James Maddison into the game because we were spending more periods without the ball.

"He’s a technical player and it’s an area of the team that we need to be better at at this level. Giving the ball away as often as we did at times means you’re chasing the ball and you start to tire.

"Vards came on too. We were trying to get something and we’ve got a striker who can run quickly and score goals and we felt he could maybe give us something."

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