Rodgers On Experimenting, Focus & Momentum

- Brendan Rodgers believes Leicester City’s stars benefitted from two concurrent pre-season friendlies on Saturday
- One Foxes side beat Stoke City, while another drew at Rotherham United
- City are yet to suffer a defeat so far this summer
- Rodgers’ outfit host Atalanta at King Power Stadium on Friday (7:30pm BST kick-off)

The Northern Irishman has seen his side beat Scunthorpe United, Cheltenham Town, Cambridge United and most recently Stoke City alongside Saturday’s draw at Rotherham United.

The Foxes next face Atalanta at King Power Stadium on Friday (7:30pm BST kick-off) before getting their highly-anticipated 2019/20 season-opener against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Filbert Way the following weekend.

“We’ve had four weeks now of pre-season, which has gone really well,” Rodgers told LCFC TV. “Lots of players have got good fitness and we’re building momentum, which is important.

“It’s not all about the winning at this stage of the season, of course, but you’re experimenting, and it always helps.

“To win another game away from home and keep our concentration to see it through is nice at this stage of the season. It allows us to really focus.”

With two matches – against Stoke and Rotherham – running alongside each other on Saturday, a healthy number of City players were able to complete their first 90 minutes of pre-season. 

“The idea was to get two level games that were going to be a step up from our previous games,” added Rodgers. “We can come here (bet365 Stadium) with one game and the players not really benefit.

“They will benefit, of course, but they might only get 60 or 65 minutes and others don’t play, so our plan was always to get two teams out playing and get as much game time into them as we can.

“We’ve two weeks to go now before the start of the season, so we want to get the players as many minutes as possible, so it looks like it’s worked well for us.”