Matchday With The Manager – Moving On & Finishing Strongly

Building solid performance-based foundations for next season is one of the matters at hand for Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and his players ahead of the final five Premier League games of the season.

2022-05-08T06:00:00.000Z

by Sam Stevens

Published

08 May, 2022

Matchday With The Manager – Moving On & Finishing Strongly

Building solid performance-based foundations for next season is one of the matters at hand for Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and his players ahead of the final five Premier League games of the season.

Sam Stevens

2022-05-08T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Moving On & Finishing Strongly

Building solid performance-based foundations for next season is one of the matters at hand for Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and his players ahead of the final five Premier League games of the season.

Sam Stevens

2022-05-08T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Moving On & Finishing Strongly

Building solid performance-based foundations for next season is one of the matters at hand for Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and his players ahead of the final five Premier League games of the season.

Sam Stevens

2022-05-08T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Moving On & Finishing Strongly

Building solid performance-based foundations for next season is one of the matters at hand for Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers and his players ahead of the final five Premier League games of the season.

Sam Stevens

2022-05-08T06:00:00.000Z

City's UEFA Europa Conference League adventure came to an end in Italy on Thursday night as AS Rome secured a 2-1 aggregate victory in the semi-finals. It was a disappointing end to a European run which included so many memorable moments for the Foxes, but Rodgers is now looking ahead.

The experiences gained over 14 matches in Europe this season will benefit the Club's players, the Northern Irishman believes, once the hurt of defeat begins to subside. Everton visit King Power Stadium on Sunday in Leicester's first outing since that 1-0 loss at Stadio Olimpico in midweek.

"We're clearly disappointed," Rodgers said at LCFC Training Ground on Friday afternoon. "It was a tough one to take. It was an incredible atmosphere and we’re disappointed with a lot of the decisions which went against us, however we just didn’t do quite enough to get something from the game.

"It’s always difficult when you concede as early as we did from a set-piece. Especially, a team like them, they will happily sit back. We’ve had great experiences on the other side. Reflecting on it, it’s 14 games in Europe this season. That’s a great experience for the players.

"It’s a great experience for the Club, and there’s some great memories created there for supporters. We’d have loved to make that last step to the final, but it wasn’t to be. We’ve put our name out there into Europe, which is important for Leicester as the Club continues to grow.

"These last few games, playing the likes of PSV and Roma, they’re teams with a great history in European football. I felt, over the two games against Roma, if we were a bit more clinical, especially in the first game, it might have been a different story.

"I think the experience for a lot of the players, the likes of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall… he’s only just breaking into Premier League football and he’s played in some important European games. They’re all experiences that help you become a better player and lots of these players are 21, 22, 23, 24 years of age.

"There’s still a lot of maturation in this group. Of course, as you’re finding that maturity as a player and as a team, you’ll win some games – like we did in the FA Cup Final – but you’ll also lose some. That’s a part of it. It’s about winning and learning, as opposed to losing.

"You know you’re going to come up short on occasions, but when you’re young and you’ve got that focus and spirit that we have, then you look to the future."

Making City's supporters proud over the final games of the Premier League campaign and setting the scene for a positive 2022/23 season are now top of the agenda for Rodgers. He hopes the winning mentality which has seen the Club lift the Emirates FA Cup and FA Community will be on show again.

"I always say at the beginning of a season that you can never stop until the last whistle goes [on the final day]," the 49-year-old added.

"We’ve got five games left. It hurts today, but the players will recover today, we’re back in again tomorrow, we'll get our plan ready for Everton, and in each game, look to give our very best and collect as many points as we possibly can. You’re playing for your pride.

"Supporters pay their money to come and watch the team. Players are always looking to prove a point and also we have to show our fighting spirit. Some might say it’s easy to just switch the engine off and coast our way through to the end of the season, but it’s not the mentality that we’ve brought into here.

"We’ve tried to bring a winning mentality to the team that every game counts. Now it’s about preparing for next season."

Reflecting on the current season so far, the former Liverpool and Celtic manager pointed to some of the challenges and the way his players have adapted to those circumstances. At one point, Leicester's injury list hit double figures, while COVID-19 cases also led to fixture postponements over winter.

"It was always going to be a challenge for us this season to sustain what we’ve done over the two and a half years before," Rodgers explained. "We always knew that, but add on top of that losing the players that we have, really important players, that made it a real, real challenge for us this season.

"I think it’s a huge credit to the players that we’ve played over 50 games with players who have missed out, yet still to this stage of the season, we had something to play for in Europe.

"That’s a testament to how, even with the struggles of this season, the players had the ability to keep going, keep fighting, keep working, keep being energetic. That, of course, is a huge testament to them.

"For me, it’s been a season where we haven’t quite matched what it’s been for over two and half years, but there’s mitigating circumstances for that. Now we have to finish the season with a strong mentality and have a great pre-season.

"We don’t have European football next year, which will obviously be disappointing, but on the flip side of that, it gives us a chance, if we can get some more players with quality and a winning mentality into the squad, that we can go and have another exciting season next year."

Sunday's clash with Frank Lampard's Everton side is likely to pose another stern test for the Foxes. The Toffees – who are currently 18th in the league – are battling to avoid a first-ever relegation from the Premier League and they sealed a huge 1-0 victory over Chelsea last time out at Goodison Park.

They also struck late against City to book a 1-1 draw on Merseyside last month in a fixture which was rescheduled from January. Rodgers knows his side will have to be at the top of their game to get a positive result on Filbert Way.

"Everton are off the back of a really good result," he said. "We played them a couple of weeks ago and, for me, I think we deserved the three points on that evening. We played very well, controlled most of the game, but just failed to see the game through. For us, we know it’s going to be a tough game.

"Everton are fighting for their lives. They’ve got good players, Frank’s a very good manager and they’ll want to come and get a result.

"They’ve [won] in some of the bigger games. They’re a team that’s very much capable and we know that. We have to be ready for that. Equally, for us, we want to get back and get three points on the board in the Premier League."

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