Talking Heads: Rodgers, Hodgson, Tielemans & Kouyaté Preview Selhurst Park Encounter
- Leicester City face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Monday (3pm kick-off)
- The Foxes occupy a place in the top four after drawing with Manchester United on Boxing Day
- Palace, meanwhile, were beaten 3-0 by Aston Villa in Birmingham later in the afternoon
- Key figures from both dressing rooms, including each manager, have discussed the clash this week
Just over 48 hours after an entertaining 2-2 draw with Manchester United, the Foxes kick off at Selhurst Park, while the Eagles had an even shorter break following their 3-0 defeat at Aston Villa.
Ahead of the encounter, Brendan Rodgers and Youri Tielemans looked ahead from a Leicester perspective, while Roy Hodgson and Cheikhou Kouyaté also previewed the fixture in the media...
Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers assesses the clash in south London: "We’ve done okay away from home, we’ve won six of our seven games. Whether it’s home or away, we’ll always look forward to play and retain our enthusiasm to continue our work. We take each game [as it comes] now and look to Palace to see if we can get a result. They played Aston Villa (after losing 7-0 to Liverpool), but Roy’s teams have always been defensively very good."
Roy Hodgson on bouncing back after two disappointing results for the Eagles: "There is no simple answer to how you survive the disappointment and the effect it is going to have on people’s confidence, the effect on their mood. Somehow we’ve got to find the mental strength to make certain that when we go out on Monday and play Leicester, we ask questions of them and cause them a lot more problems than we caused Aston Villa."
Youri Tielemans looks ahead: "We go there to try and win the game. That's the plan. Now, it's up to the manager to make his decisions and to put the players who are fresh and ready to play. But in terms of training, we'll have our preparation for the game like we usually have, but we'll be all about recovery and then we'll see what happens. We're doing well at the moment. We have to keep going like that and putting the pressure on the top and try to stay there, if we can."
Midfielder Cheikhou Kouyaté, speaking to cpfc.co.uk, post-Villa: "After they lost a man we said in the second half we were going to come out to try and score but after two more goals it’s very hard to take. We tried to do everything but today is not our day. We just need to stay positive and continue to work hard because sometimes you have this moment in the season. We need to stay together. We need to talk and stay focused for Monday because we have another big game."
All times GMT.