Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

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Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

Brendan Rodgers has outlined some of the attributes which Leicester City need to show in order to get a positive result at Chelsea.

2022-08-27T07:15:00.000Z

by Sam Stevens

Published

27 Aug, 2022

Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

Brendan Rodgers has outlined some of the attributes which Leicester City need to show in order to get a positive result at Chelsea.

Sam Stevens

2022-08-27T07:15:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

Brendan Rodgers has outlined some of the attributes which Leicester City need to show in order to get a positive result at Chelsea.

Sam Stevens

2022-08-27T07:15:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

Brendan Rodgers has outlined some of the attributes which Leicester City need to show in order to get a positive result at Chelsea.

Sam Stevens

2022-08-27T07:15:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – 'Show Big Belief'

Brendan Rodgers has outlined some of the attributes which Leicester City need to show in order to get a positive result at Chelsea.

Sam Stevens

2022-08-27T07:15:00.000Z

The Foxes are winless from their opening three Premier League games of the 2022/23 season, collecting a point in total from home encounters with Brentford and Southampton either side of an away visit to Arsenal. On Tuesday, they emerged past Stockport County on penalties in the Carabao Cup.

Visiting Stamford Bridge to tackle Chelsea puts City up against top-level opposition on Saturday as they continue their pursuit of a maiden three points. Ahead of that clash in west London, Rodgers sat down with the media this week to discuss a wide range of topics at LCFC Training Ground...

Preparing for a response – Facing Chelsea

Chelsea were beaten 3-0 at Leeds United last weekend – a result which, for a club of their stature, necessitates an immediate response. Leicester City will stand in their way on Saturday and Rodgers has highlighted the scale of the task which awaits for his Foxes players.

"It’s always a tough game, you’re playing against a top team," the Northern Irishman said. "They showed in their last home game, against Tottenham (a 2-2 draw), that they’re a very good side. They’ve got technically good players and they have that ambition and motivation to want to win.

"They will be looking to bounce back from their game against Leeds as well, so we anticipate a tough game, but we’re looking forward to it. You'll get an ambition to want to put [that Leeds result] right. It certainly doesn't make the game any easier off the back of a tough game.

"Leeds played well and got the result, but [Chelsea] will want to go into the next game and get a positive result. We know that. We go there with a view to get our first win. We don't have to be the best team in the world to beat the best teams. We've shown that over our time here.

"We go there with a real commitment and a real focus to get our first win of the season."

Building confidence – Fixing City's form

Rodgers knows Leicester have already shown the way to improved fortunes. For an hour of both of their home matches this season – against Brentford and Southampton – City dominated proceedings, opening up leads, before losing them again late on.

That early-game performance level gives the Foxes manager optimism, but he is aware of the need to prolong it over a full 90 minutes.

"It's a matter of time," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager added. "We’ve shown in certainly two of the three league games, Brentford and Southampton, that we mustn’t stop. That was the message. We played very well for certain periods of the game, but you can’t stop in the Premier League.

"You’ve got to keep working, you’ve got to keep concentrated, and it’s reinforcing a lot of the work when we’re good, but also increasing the intensity of our game, which is important. We’re very lucky to work in the profession that we do.

"Football is important for many people’s lives, and we do as well as we possibly can do to make those lives as happy as we can. When you’re not winning games, it’s all about process. You’ve got to get back, get into work, and I’m one of the last people that will lose my optimism.

"I’m very optimistic in life and with this team and with the Club.

"We come in every day, we’re very fortunate to work in a great facility, and I know there’s a lot of noise and speculation around what we haven’t done in terms of transfers and improving the squad, but ultimately, we come in every day to improve and develop and that hasn’t changed."

Hard work – The basics

Rodgers says the only way to get back to winning more regularly is to invest in the work at LCFC Training Ground and for the players to commit themselves to those endeavours. Showing belief, backing themselves in games, and giving everything will be key to Leicester's success, he says.

"At this level, if you want to compete at the very top level, certainly in the Premier League, you need to have big belief," Rodgers explained.

"That’s very important. There’s things that happen in the game where you can work on the training field, but there’s certain moments of intuition in the game and a will to score a goal, a desire to score a goal, and that’s absolutely vital. There’s many factors to it, clearly confidence is one as well.

"If you look at the Brentford game, we were excellent for 60 minutes. In the game against Southampton, we played well in that for up to 60 minutes. The tempo of the game, the speed of the game, the numbers in the box… we mustn’t stop that. That’s been the difference.

"We’ve stopped when maybe we felt there was a comfort in the game, but at this level, you’re never comfortable. We’ve seen that at 1-0 and 2-0. We just have to keep promoting our work because, if you’re going to achieve anything and get back to any sort of level, the basics of that is hard work.

"That’s something we’ve reinforced this week."

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