Rodgers' Praise For Mourinho Ahead Of Spurs Clash
- Leicester City are visitors to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Premier League on Sunday (4pm kick-off)
- Brendan Rodgers commends José Mourinho after working with the Spurs manager at Chelsea
- The Northern Irishman also discusses the form of Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy this season
- Achieving European football for the Club next season is a 'superb' achievement, Rodgers says
Spurs head into the clash on the back of two successive wins, over rivals Arsenal and then Newcastle United, while City defeated Sheffield United last time out in the Premier League.
Rodgers worked with Mourinho as a coach at Chelsea over a decade ago and, speaking on Friday morning, he discussed the impact the Portuguese had on his own development in management.
"You have to be yourself, but there’s absolutely no doubt that at that time, José was a huge influence for me," Rodgers told the national media ahead of Sunday's fixture in the capital.
"He’s an absolutely world-class manager who was brilliant for me as a young coach. His professionalism and how he devoted his life to football, his focus and detail, was incredible.
"José had time for me and always communicated well with me. Of course, our ideas on the game are slightly different, in terms of preparation and detail, but he was absolutely brilliant.
"He was so good in the media in that period, when I was there, so he was a breath of fresh air and I learned so much from him just from observing how an elite manager operates.
"José's got outstanding players so they’re always going to be a difficult opponent for us. They’ve got talents that can hurt you at the top end of the pitch and we’ll be ready for a tough game."
Sunday could see two of the Premier League's most proficient English strikers go head-to-head once more with Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane having 38 top-flight goals between them.
Vardy leads the way in the scoring charts with 23 to his name this season and, while praising both for their goalscoring attributes, Rodgers has been enthused by Vardy's recent development.
"Harry’s gone on and broken himself into the Tottenham team and, of course, he’s a world-class striker," the Northern Irishman explained during his virtual pre-match press conference.
"I don’t really know him at all, but he seems like a very humble guy who gets on with his work and obviously he’s done great for Tottenham and for England.
"He’s a top-level striker who scores all types of goals and is a real reference point for his club and then Jamie is just phenomenal.
"For all of my time here, he’s been amazing. In the game last night (Thursday), you could see his energy and his quality – and the bits where he’s adding to his game.
"He’s not only a goalscorer, when he gets in there, he makes the right, weighted pass and that shows you the development in his game.
"They’re both outstanding strikers, different strikers, but both up there with the best strikers in the world."
Leicester's win over the Blades ensured the Club will participate in European competition next season, but Rodgers believes the league will be as competitive as ever in the future.
"Our target was always to bring European football here," he reflected, after achieving one of the Foxes' primary goals this term.
"To do it with two games to go is superb. However, we have an opportunity to do even more and we’re going to give everything to try and do that.
"If you look back to the beginning of the season and the teams who were tipped to maybe break into the top-six; Wolves, Everton, West Ham and then ourselves.
"We were in that group sitting outside the top-six, so the Premier League will continue to be competitive as other teams look to improve again next season."
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