A Perfect Exercise For City, Says Rodgers
- Leicester City sealed a 2-0 pre-season win at Birmingham City on Wednesday afternoon
- Youngster Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Marc Albrighton got the goals in the second half for City
- Foxes forward Admiral Muskwe was denied from the penalty spot by Zach Jeacock in the latter moments
- Brendan Rodgers picked out several pleasing aspects of the performance, speaking to LCFC TV afterwards
Academy graduate Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who impressed on loan at Blackpool last term, opened the scoring after the break, before Marc Albrighton fortuitously doubled City's lead.
After watching his side perform admirably in their first outing of the summer, against Aitor Karanka's Sky Bet Championship outfit, Rodgers expressed his satisfaction on LCFC TV at full-time.
"It was excellent," the Northern Irishman said, speaking pitchside at Birmingham's training ground. "I think, firstly, our young players, we’ve worked with them a lot of these last number of months.
"You can see, when they come in, they understand the style and the method of our play and were very, very good. Of course, our regulars have showed a great attitude and great work-rate.
"Overall, it was a perfect exercise for us. Some played 45 minutes, some of the players got 60, and it’s always nice to win, even if it’s pre-season."
The intensity of City's playing style in particular encouraged Rodgers, who outlined the importance of playing an aggressive brand of football in order to win matches at any level.
"It's very important how we play," he added. "We need to play an intense game and when we’re at our best, that’s how we normally function, so I was pleased.
"The concentration level to play with that intensity is very, very important and I thought all the players showed that today in their performance."
Dewsbury-Hall's performance - and the emphatic nature of his goal - was another pleasing aspect for the Foxes manager.
Rodgers highlighted the quality of Leicester's opener in the West Midlands, while also reserving praise for Albrighton's work in pressing Blues goalkeeper Zach Jeacock for the second.
"[Dewsbury-Hall's] a very good player," Rodgers said. "He obviously went on loan, last year, to Blackpool and scored some goals, so he has that ability from midfield, to get in the box and score.
"But I thought all round, we always talk about pressing goalkeepers and Marc got his second goal from that.
"I think you’ll get three, four or five goals a season from pressing goalkeepers, so that was good."