Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

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Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers pointed to the significance of Thursday's UEFA Europa League encounter with Legia Warsaw to both sides as the group stage approaches a decisive juncture.

2021-11-25T07:02:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers pointed to the significance of Thursday's UEFA Europa League encounter with Legia Warsaw to both sides as the group stage approaches a decisive juncture.

2021-11-25T07:02:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers pointed to the significance of Thursday's UEFA Europa League encounter with Legia Warsaw to both sides as the group stage approaches a decisive juncture.

2021-11-25T07:02:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers pointed to the significance of Thursday's UEFA Europa League encounter with Legia Warsaw to both sides as the group stage approaches a decisive juncture.

2021-11-25T07:02:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager – Refining Leicester's Edge

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers pointed to the significance of Thursday's UEFA Europa League encounter with Legia Warsaw to both sides as the group stage approaches a decisive juncture.

2021-11-25T07:02:00.000Z

The time is now to get points on the board for all four sides in Group C with automatic qualification to the Round of 16 and a place in the knockout play-offs up for grabs over the coming two matchdays. City could leapfrog the Polish champions with three points on Filbert Way.

Leicester's form, though, has been inconsistent in recent weeks. Rodgers is nonetheless confident that by returning to their key principles on the field of play, the Foxes will return to their highest levels shortly and climb the standings both domestically and in European competition.

"There’s no magic formula," the Northern Irishman told the media inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground on Wednesday afternoon. "It’s hard work. In the period we’ve been here, the consistency in the main has been very, very good.

"The brutal honesty is we’re a squad who has talented players but we certainly weren’t near that top end in terms of the squads at this level and certainly in the Premier League.

"However, what we were able to do was have that collective mentality to absolutely rinse everything out of the players that were here and that allowed us to challenge the hierarchy of the league. That’s what teams like us need to be able to do, or else you sit in that section we’re in at the moment.

"For us, I have total belief in the players, their talents. It’s just getting back to working hard and that sacrifice as an individual player. In order to keep working well, you have to suffer a little bit also. It’s that personal commitment to be the very best you can be and then, collectively, you come together.

"For us, of course the confidence isn’t quite at the level we want it to be, but the only way you make that better is by continually working at the highest level you can be and then it will return. I’ve no doubt it will. We just need to keep working hard."

Legia, on the other hand, have endured a difficult start to 2021/22 and currently sit 17th in the Polish Ekstraklasa. They are yet to improve their results under the guidance of new manager Marek Gołębiewski, but Rodgers believes the freedom afforded by European football makes them a dangerous opponent.

"I spoke with the players on that this morning," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager revealed. "It’s been difficult for them, like it is for some of the teams.

"If you look at the champions of Poland over this last number of years, it’s always been difficult for them to match the European demands as well as the league demands. For us this year, there’s been some of that also, but we’ve got two more games left in the group.

"It’s a really, really important game for both teams. Sometimes, no matter how the team is doing in the league, this is a change of environment, a change of venue and a change of competition. I’m pretty sure, despite their recent results, it will be a tough game for us.

"We just concentrate on our process, concentrate on our football and getting our strategy right for the game. We want to bring intensity in the game and that combination with the supporters and then we hope we can get that result which takes us above Legia."

After analysing Gołębiewski's tweaks to Legia's play, Rodgers says Leicester will be prepared for all eventualities, whether the visitors start the game on the front foot, or if they sit deep, looking to hit City on the counter.

"At any level, especially in the Premier League and in European football, concentration is one of the biggest attributes you need to have," he continued. "From analysing them, they’ve played 3-4-3 quite a lot with the new manager coming in. He’s looked to play 4-3-3 in some of the games.

"It might be similar to the Spartak Moscow game, where they might sit in and be tight and compact and hard to beat, and then look on the breakaway to score. They’ve also changed one or two personnel which has made them more technical.

"They’ve brought some technicians into the game, which can sometimes tell you they want to open up and play. Whatever game they bring, we have to focus on our own game and look at our process and game idea. Once we get the confidence back within that, we’ll hopefully give them more problems.

"They’re always tight games, but we’re at home. We need to impose our game, take the burden, and that’s what we’ve always been good at. We try to take the burden of the game and that’s when we’re at our best. That’s our idea."

Asked directly what Leicester need to get right on Thursday to end up with the desired result, Rodgers called on his players to simplify their game and rediscover their confidence through hard work and dedicated application in training.

"If we’re playing at our level, that’s when we’re at our best," the 48-year-old said. "It’s about refining that edge to our game. That always starts with our pressing, our aggression in the duels, and that synchronisation as a team. That’s where it all starts.

"When we then win the ball, it’s about getting back to the simplicity of the game, which is finding the right spaces, playing forward quickly, creating the one vs. ones and then attacking the box. That’s what we’ve done over the last few days.

"I’ve been really pleased with the work we’ve seen and the work we’ve done. We haven’t had a great deal of time to work and you’re obviously recovering from the weekend, but we’ve been able to do some great work in these last few days and we hope we can see that out on the field."

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