Matchday With The Manager: Looking Upwards In The League Table

Brendan Rodgers says Leicester City's focus is solely on finishing as high as they possibly can in the Premier League table this season after already matching their 2019/20 points tally with five games remaining.

2021-04-30T06:00:00.000Z

Brendan Rodgers says Leicester City's focus is solely on finishing as high as they possibly can in the Premier League table this season after already matching their 2019/20 points tally with five games remaining.

2021-04-30T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Looking Upwards In The League Table

Brendan Rodgers says Leicester City's focus is solely on finishing as high as they possibly can in the Premier League table this season after already matching their 2019/20 points tally with five games remaining.

2021-04-30T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Looking Upwards In The League Table

Brendan Rodgers says Leicester City's focus is solely on finishing as high as they possibly can in the Premier League table this season after already matching their 2019/20 points tally with five games remaining.

2021-04-30T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: Looking Upwards In The League Table

Brendan Rodgers says Leicester City's focus is solely on finishing as high as they possibly can in the Premier League table this season after already matching their 2019/20 points tally with five games remaining.

2021-04-30T06:00:00.000Z

The Foxes begin a five-game run-in with Friday's visit to Southampton before tackling Newcastle United at home seven days later. Then, as well as an appearance in the final of the Emirates FA Cup, City will tackle Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur to end their 2020/21 campaign.

Leicester are currently third, five points adrift of Man Utd and seven clear of West Ham United in fifth. Over recent weeks, Rodgers' men have secured back-to-back league victories over West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace – performances which pleased the Northern Irishman for different reasons.

"We’ve been able to win in different ways," Rodgers told the media on Wednesday afternoon at LCFC Training Ground. "You need that if you want to be competitive and you want to be a top team. I think everyone who’s played against Crystal Palace knows, especially if you go behind, how tough it is.

"They’ve got very talented players, they’re defensively very well organised, so you have to really work to get a result. To come from 1-0 down and play the way we did in the second half, scoring two goals and managing the game, I was so happy for the players.

"We’ve been winning different types of games with different moments in the games. I’m really pleased with how calm we were and with that patience we showed in the game, which was important. If you want to be successful, you play lots of games, particularly at this time of the season

"The players are always game ready, they look after themselves, and they’re always ready to give their heart and soul into the game and that will be the same idea for Friday."

Kelechi Iheanacho's form for the Foxes, meanwhile, has been one of several highlights over recent months. After scoring a dramatic winner against Palace last time out, the Nigerian is now on 12 goals in nine appearances for Leicester – or 14 in 14 – and Rodgers has been thrilled with his progress.

"He’s a very talented boy, but also his mentality is to work hard every single day," he added. "It’s so nice to see a young player get his rewards. I remember coming into here and he wasn’t playing so much and there’s no question there was doubts around whether he could come in and play at the level consistently.

"I think that was due more to the fact that he hadn’t been playing more regularly and, even with myself, he hadn’t been playing so much because of the system we played, but he was always very competent and a player that could come in and affect the game.

"He showed that when we did play him with Jamie [Vardy] and they really worked well together. It was never going to be about his ability. It was just about whether he’d get the opportunity and would he have that resilience and mentality to keep fighting until he did get it? Clearly, he has all of those traits.

"It’s so, so nice to see because we all love him here. He’s a great guy. He comes in with a smile every single morning. He loves his football and you can see now, with a consistent run of games, the quality he has, the finishing ability, how courageous he is too. We’re just so happy for him.

"He wants to continue to get better, the coaches have been brilliant with him. He does a lot of finishing exercises with them. They do extra work with him and he’s a guy that’s playing at a high level.

"The two together (including Vardy), their strengths complement each other. Both can threaten in behind, they have a nice, synchronised way of playing. Collectively, the team have really benefited from it. Jamie maybe hasn’t scored the goals so much, but his movement has created a lot of space.

"His intensity, his work-rate, everything, he’s really helped Kels. Obviously, for Kels himself, my only worry with him is that he’s running out of celebrations! He needs to keep looking at the number of celebrations he has left, so hopefully he can keep scoring and keep celebrating!"

With City in a good place heading into the final five matches, Rodgers has called on his players 'not to soften up' but to continue with the same mentality which enabled them to remain in contention for European qualification and a first major piece of silverware since the Premier League title in 2016.

"Up until this point, it’s been really good, but it’s not the time to soften up," he explained. "We come off the back of a really good win which puts us level with points on last season, but our ambition is to finish as high as we can and finish the season with a trophy. That’s our focus.

"We’ve got really good energy in the team. The mentality of the team is really strong. When you’ve got a group of players who, as I said earlier, give their heart and soul into the games, that of course always makes you really proud and really happy to work with that level of player.

"We want to give it everything we can. Our idea is to try and catch Manchester United if we possibly can.

"We’ve got five games to go. We’re looking up and that’s important. The last five games in the league are going to be really exciting for us. We’re five points behind Manchester United and we still have them to play, so our focus is very much on looking up in the league and playing with the identity which we’ve created and knowing that anything is possible for us.

"That’s our ambition for the season, to continually look forward, look up in the league, and to try and finish as high as we can."

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