Matchday With The Manager: Leaping Over Hurdles & Leicester's Objectives

Leicester City must continue to rise to the challenge, both physically and mentally, as the 2020/21 Premier League campaign approaches an exciting final run-in of fixtures, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-03-06T07:00:00.000Z

Leicester City must continue to rise to the challenge, both physically and mentally, as the 2020/21 Premier League campaign approaches an exciting final run-in of fixtures, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-03-06T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Leaping Over Hurdles & Leicester's Objectives

Leicester City must continue to rise to the challenge, both physically and mentally, as the 2020/21 Premier League campaign approaches an exciting final run-in of fixtures, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-03-06T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Leaping Over Hurdles & Leicester's Objectives

Leicester City must continue to rise to the challenge, both physically and mentally, as the 2020/21 Premier League campaign approaches an exciting final run-in of fixtures, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-03-06T07:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Leaping Over Hurdles & Leicester's Objectives

Leicester City must continue to rise to the challenge, both physically and mentally, as the 2020/21 Premier League campaign approaches an exciting final run-in of fixtures, says manager Brendan Rodgers.

2021-03-06T07:00:00.000Z

The Foxes are third in the Premier League, into the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup and next travel to AMEX Stadium to tackle Graham Potter's Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

The league standing has remained unchanged over recent weeks as City's injury list grew - with seven first team players now out - but Rodgers expressed a sense of calm about the Club's bid for the success when speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon.

"You’re always, as a manager, looking to galvanise your squad, especially in a season such as this where there’s so much demand, physically and mentally, on the players," the Northern Irishman said inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground.

"Fortunately, we have a tremendous spirit here with the squad. For the players, after the weekend, it was disappointment, but we went into a very difficult game against Burnley and we stood up to the task, physically, and we kept going after conceding early.

"The overall spirit in our team is very, very strong. Through the environment that we’ve created, there’s no thrills around it, the players work very hard.

"They’re always very motivated to do well, but of course, whenever anyone talks about the injuries, it’s something we tend not to. We just deal with it and look to be the best we can be.

"The game might look slightly different because of the quality of players that are out, but we still want to put out a team that can muster up results and that’s what we saw [at Burnley].

"It’ll be the same idea against Brighton at the weekend."

Rodgers believes the fusion of youth and experience could help Leicester achieve their objectives this term, with experienced heads providing a grounding, while youngsters can play with youthful exuberance, all within in the same tactical model.

"It’s everyone," he continued. "It’s not just the senior players. In these times as well, the young players are equally as important. They play without fear, they’re not burdened by anything.

"They just want to play football and that’s equally as important. Of course, experience is great because that keeps the emotion [controlled], you don’t have to be so emotional as you get more experienced. You just stay in that mindset of never getting too high or too low.

"Where we’re at, the balance we have is very good across the squad and we’ll just continue to keep that mentality right the way through."

Brighton, meanwhile, have endured a difficult run of form, going five games without a victory in all competitions, which has allowed Fulham, in 18th place, to close the gap to the Seagulls to just three points.

However, Potter's men have demonstrated, on several occasions this season, not least in their last win over champions Liverpool at Anfield on 3 February, that they have the quality to pick up impressive results.

"We just know it’s a very difficult game," Rodgers continued. "Despite their results, the performance level is very good. I’ve been really impressed with Graham’s work since he’s gone in there.

"With the game model he’s tried to implement with his team, they have nice confidence with the ball, the positioning game is good, they circulate the ball at a good speed, they get good numbers going forward and they want to attack the game, so we’ll be ready for a tough game.

"I don’t think it’s any more or less difficult (facing a team with mixed results). In the modern game, you have to put any disappointment you have behind you.

"They’ll know themselves they had chances to win the game (a 1-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion), they missed two penalties. Forget about the free-kick, they will be thinking they could have won the game.

"A footballer nowadays, and managers and staff, has to get on with it and they’ve had a good, full week to prepare and they’ll be motivated, I’m sure, to get a win at home."

With the Foxes looking to once again secure European football at the end of this season, Rodgers also spoke with pride about the manner in which his players have leapt over several hurdles in their way.

As well as navigating a gruelling schedule of European fixtures, Leicester have also continued to consistently pick up positive results domestically and their manager has been thrilled with the application and desire on show from his players.

"I’ve been really proud of the players this season," Rodgers said. "We’ve had much more to deal (compared to 2019/20) with in terms of our European games and, of course, the difficulties we’ve had with injuries.

"I’m very proud of what the players have done up until now, but we still have a lot of games to play and a very exciting end to the season.

"We just have to deal with what comes our way and look to win the next game. We’re in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, we’re in a really good position in the league.

"We have to go out and reinforce that each time we play and I’ve never been one to look at it and think: ‘We’re in the top four’.

"I think you can only say you're in the top four when you sign off at the end of the season and the final whistle goes after the last game against Tottenham, that’s when you know where you’ve finished.

"Where you are is where you deserve to finish. Until that comes, we just come in every day, look to have a good energy and a good attitude in our work and see where it takes us."

The former Liverpool and Celtic manager also believes his squad are learning all the time and, following a fifth-placed finish last term, he feels they are well placed to match or better that standing in 2020/21.

"It’s all a learning experience," he told reporters. "I believe, come the end of the season, wherever we finish, we’ll want to reinforce our squad at the end of the season and make it stronger.

"Then we’ll look to put in a really competitive challenge next season. Listen, we finished where we wanted to finish last season, in terms of a European place.

"Of course, every team and everyone will tell you they’d love to be in that top four, but for us, success is always going to be European football.

"The challenges we have against the other clubs - the depth of squads and the financial clout those teams have - for us to be up there challenging is terrific. We want be as competitive as we possibly can be. Up until this point, we have been, so we hope that can continue."

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