Matchday With The Manager: The Blue Army Can Make All The Difference

The return of passionate Leicester City supporters to King Power Stadium could be a crucial factor for the Foxes in Sunday's decisive Premier League finale against Tottenham Hotspur, according to Brendan Rodgers.

2021-05-23T06:00:00.000Z

The return of passionate Leicester City supporters to King Power Stadium could be a crucial factor for the Foxes in Sunday's decisive Premier League finale against Tottenham Hotspur, according to Brendan Rodgers.

2021-05-23T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: The Blue Army Can Make All The Difference

The return of passionate Leicester City supporters to King Power Stadium could be a crucial factor for the Foxes in Sunday's decisive Premier League finale against Tottenham Hotspur, according to Brendan Rodgers.

2021-05-23T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: The Blue Army Can Make All The Difference

The return of passionate Leicester City supporters to King Power Stadium could be a crucial factor for the Foxes in Sunday's decisive Premier League finale against Tottenham Hotspur, according to Brendan Rodgers.

2021-05-23T06:00:00.000Z

Matchday With The Manager: The Blue Army Can Make All The Difference

The return of passionate Leicester City supporters to King Power Stadium could be a crucial factor for the Foxes in Sunday's decisive Premier League finale against Tottenham Hotspur, according to Brendan Rodgers.

2021-05-23T06:00:00.000Z

While City go into the final day clash needing Chelsea or Liverpool to drop points, in that eventuality, a win over Spurs at King Power Stadium will be enough for Rodgers' men to qualify for European football's platinum club competition – the UEFA Champions League.

The newly-crowned FA Cup winners, who will compete in Europe regardless, will be roared on by members of the Blue Army on Filbert Way for the first time since March 2020. Although the venue will still be operating at a reduced capacity, the Northern Irishman is hopeful it could be decisive.

Just like they did at Wembley Stadium a week earlier, if Leicester are to secure a victory on Sunday, Rodgers believes the supporters have a real and integral role to play in the occasion.

"It’s what football’s about – the tension, the noise, the passion," the 48-year-old said on Friday afternoon. "They’ve been a huge difference for us and we’ve missed the supporters here.

"We look forward to having them back in with that roar, that noise. That could make all the difference for us and push us over the line. We saw at Wembley with the support we had on that day… it was only 6,000, but it felt like there was four or five times that there.

"That saw us through. They will help us at the weekend, for sure, and hopefully we can do them proud and finish off with three points."

Leicester will be monitoring results elsewhere on Sunday as third-placed Chelsea visit Aston Villa, while fourth-placed Liverpool host Crystal Palace. Only goal difference separates City from the Reds, while Thomas Tuchel's west London outfit are one point better off.

Rodgers, though, is hopeful that the 2020/21 Premier League campaign has one last surprise in store: "I don’t think it’s over yet. I have that optimism and that belief. If we can do our job, we can do no more than that, so it’ll be interesting to see how it finishes up.

"We wouldn’t want for the door to have opened and for us not to be able to walk through it, so let’s get the three points, focus on our performance, play well, finish off the season with a good victory and let’s see where it takes us.

"We can only control what we do. Chelsea and Liverpool, they’ve got very talented and experienced players, but we can’t control that. I won’t lose any sleep over it. Our focus for Sunday will be controlling what we can – getting three points and finishing off on 69 points.

"It doesn’t finish until the final whistle. It’s [decided] over the course of the season. All teams over the season have played bad games and lost points, but after 38 games, you’ll finish were you deserve to. It’s as simple as that.

"It’ll be a tough game for us. Tottenham are pushing as well for a win, but thankfully, we’ll have some supporters in there. We’ve missed them and I’m sure they’ll really help the team forward and help them play to the intensity that we would want.

"We’ve fought and we will fight right until the very end. If it doesn’t happen for us, we’ll all come back in the summer and we’ll be even more motivated. We’ll have an even greater incentive to push on. That’s what development is. We’ve designed something here to try and sustain performance.

"If it doesn’t quite happen this year, we’ll be back in the summer even more motivated to push on next season."

The Foxes have already eclipsed their points tally from last season – meaning, whatever happens, their 2020/21 total will be the Club's second-highest in Leicester's top-flight history – and Rodgers was keen to point to that progression.

"That’s ultimately what we’re here to do," the former Liverpool and Celtic manager added. "My commitment to football has always been about development. Whether that’s a young player or a senior player, there’s always development that can take place, no matter the age.

"We’ve been in here working for two and half years and, from day one, that has been the intention. We wanted to design a programme that would allow the performances to be consistent, to produce a team that is exciting to watch with an attacking philosophy, and one that fights for their supporters.

"That’s what we do as a team. It’s how I’ve always managed every team I’ve gone into with my staff. It’s about improving and developing players. We can see signs of that, but there’s still a lot of development to take place here."

Last Saturday's Fa Cup triumph – the first in City's history – can also be a source of inspiration for the players, Rodgers says, and mark a change in mentality.

He explained: "I’ve always had [a desire to win], that’s why I came here. I came because I wanted to try and bring success to the Club. That’s been here since day one.

"Winning leagues is important, but when you can win a cup competition, the emotion is different. That day, that emotion, like we all sensed there… the feeling on the day, the feel-good factor, it’s absolutely the same for the players.

"They have that now. I said to them: ‘You’ve become winners now’. Once you stimulate that notion inside you, it should take you onto another level. That’s my job, to lead and drive the team. We’ve won our first trophy. We have something tangible to show for our work. Now we want to keep pushing."

Making that progress sustainable for years to come is now the aim for Rodgers and Leicester City, regardless of the discrepancies in budget which are currently evident in the Premier League landscape.

"It’s about sustaining," he continued. "If we can become a sustainable club in European football, that shows we’re succeeding as a football club. If you think, commercially, we’re 10th or so in the league, we’re eighth in terms of budget.

"So, can we improve in all aspects of the Club? Can we improve commercially? That will then help in terms of finance, for players, and naturally, it’s always going to be really, really difficult for us to compete with some of the clubs that have three or four times our budgets.

"But it doesn’t stop us fighting. It doesn’t stop us performing on the field. As I’ve always said, can we disrupt that hierarchy? We’ve been able to do that now. We’ll finish fifth at the lowest this season, so it’s European football for us.

"Then it’s about sustaining that and continually being there to fight for the trophies. Hopefully, you can see in our time together that’s what we’ve done."

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