Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

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Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

Press conferences with Brendan Rodgers are gradually, once again, becoming more frequent as Leicester City's fixture schedule includes more and more competitive outings on three fronts.

2021-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

Press conferences with Brendan Rodgers are gradually, once again, becoming more frequent as Leicester City's fixture schedule includes more and more competitive outings on three fronts.

2021-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

Press conferences with Brendan Rodgers are gradually, once again, becoming more frequent as Leicester City's fixture schedule includes more and more competitive outings on three fronts.

2021-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

Press conferences with Brendan Rodgers are gradually, once again, becoming more frequent as Leicester City's fixture schedule includes more and more competitive outings on three fronts.

2021-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Assessing Everton, City's Youthful Leadership & Fofana's Emergence

Press conferences with Brendan Rodgers are gradually, once again, becoming more frequent as Leicester City's fixture schedule includes more and more competitive outings on three fronts.

2021-01-27T07:00:00.000Z

While the resumption of UEFA Europa League duties is just under a month away, the Foxes have already contested five matches so far in 2021, both in the Premier League and the Emirates FA Cup.

There are two more top-flight clashes to go in January - starting at Goodison Park against Everton on Wednesday - before an eight-game February, which includes a two-legged European tie with Slavia Prague.

City's next challenge will be posed by Carlo Ancelotti's Toffees on Merseyside - the only team to have defeated Leicester across their last 12 fixtures - and Rodgers anticipates a tough encounter.

"They’re definitely a team that’s going to challenge," the Northern Irishman told the national media on Monday. "They’ve had big investment in the team over the last four to five years.

"There’s an expectancy there to challenge. Carlo’s a world-class manager with big experience, so he will look to maximise what he can get out of them.

"They’ve got outstanding players. I definitely expect them to be challenging.

"For us, it’s probably the one disappointing game that I look back on. We gave away not great goals and we didn’t play so well on the evening.

"I think we arrive into this game in a totally different moment. Our energy’s good, the momentum’s good, and we’re playing how I want us to play.

"We're defending how we want to defend and, hopefully, we can put in a much better performance in the game.

"It wasn’t a great game of football and we should have taken a point, but we couldn’t.

"We conceded two poor goals from our perspective and ended up losing a game which there wasn’t much in, so hopefully our performance will be better on Wednesday."

With Jamie Vardy out for a short period of time after a hernia operation, Ayoze Pérez started in the traditional forward position in Sunday's 3-1 FA Cup Fourth Round triumph at Brentford.

Although the Spaniard was not one of City's three goalscorers in the capital, Rodgers is certain the former Newcastle United striker can provide firepower in the Foxes' line-up.

"Probably his best position is more central," the 48-year-old explained. "Obviously, in how we’ve been playing, we’ve had Jamie [Vardy] as that central player.

"We’ve played him in a position just off the right side, it’s one he’s been comfortable with, not as an out-and-out wide player, but one where he played a lot for Newcastle.

"It’s just on the side where he can come in and join on the attack. He’s probably the best suited in that central role. He’s been a very important player for us.

"It’s always difficult when you change club after being at a club for a period of time. Last year, he adapted really well.

"This year, he hasn’t featured so much, primarily because of the influence of other players who have kept him out, but he’s continued to train very well.

"He trains with great purpose and the things we’ve asked him to improve on, he’s looking to do that. We’re a team that needs and wants to play with a big intensity.

"We want an aggression in our game and that’s something which he’s continued to get better and better at. I know he will score goals.

"He is a natural goalscorer for me. He was unfortunate not to score (on Sunday), but we’ll always carry a threat. He’s different to Jamie, of course, but he’s always looking to score."

Rodgers has been particularly enthused by the leadership which has been demonstrated within his squad this season, not just by the more senior players.

Midfielder Youri Tielemans, 23, adorned the captain's armband at Brentford in a sign of the maturity which Leicester's younger players are developing at the Club.

"It’s something which I’ve tried to promote here," Rodgers explained. "When you have a young squad, if you’re asking them to take on responsibility, you’ve got to give them responsibility.

"You have to encourage them to take that. I’ve been really happy with that side of our development, the leadership qualities that the players are showing.

"Youri is 23 but has got great football knowledge and experience. He understands, tactically, what I want to do with the team.

"He plays with that authority in the game, which is important. I see James Maddison developing real leadership qualities as well.

"Guys that are maybe a little bit quieter like Harvey Barnes, they’re showing that confidence, and it’s something that is difficult in the modern game.

"Sometimes players are very quiet and don’t communicate as much, but we’ve tried to promote that here.

"We’ve promoted the players having a voice and using that in a positive way and we can see that in the team now, they’re starting to evolve that greater maturity."

Wesley Fofana, on the other hand, has excelled in a Foxes shirt since joining from AS Saint-Étienne in the summer, making 21 appearances this term, usually alongside Jonny Evans.

For Rodgers, the nature of the young Frenchman's performances is merely a demonstration of why the Club elected to procure his talents and he is excited to see how much more development is to come.

"He’s shown immense potential since he’s come in," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager added. "I think he’d only played something like 17-odd games, but he does things so naturally in the game.

"For a defender, his anticipation, one of the key elements for me in a defender, he anticipates the danger and he reads the game. It’s at a really high level already.

"That will only improve with more game experience. His speed, his ability in the air… in any league in the British game, you have to be good in the air.

"He can defend those balls into the box and those frontal balls you need to go and attack and he’s very good in that moment. He defends forward. I like my defenders to be aggressive.

"He does all of that, but there are positional elements to his game that will become better, with more games and more coaching time.

"Also, he’s spent most of his career thus far playing in a back three, so to be able to then adapt and play in a two like he has been, that shows you his football intelligence.

"I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s a young player that’s still got development and improvements to make, but we’re seeing the great qualities [which show] why we wanted to bring him in."

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