Matchday With The Manager - Return To Our Standard
The Foxes were beaten at King Power Stadium on 26 December, with three first-half goals from the visiting Magpies enough for Eddie Howe’s men to take the points back up to the North East.
While speaking to the gathered media inside the King Power Centre at LCFC Training Ground, Rodgers acknowledged that it was an off day for his side, but thoughts have quickly turned to the next task in hand, a trip to Anfield on Friday…
Learning from the loss
The manager believes the 3-0 defeat to Newcastle must be written off as an uncharacteristic bad day at the office after the team had performed so well in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup, and then returned from the break with a Carabao Cup victory at MK Dons.
Rodgers reflected: “We were very disappointed with the performance against Newcastle, it was unlike how we’d been for a few months. We’d been very strong, very aggressive. But if you look, 52 seconds into the game, we made a mistake and gave away the penalty.
“I think when you make mistakes early in the game, it can have that negative effect. Within 10 minutes, you’re 2-0 down and it’s very difficult against a team that is high on confidence and playing well.
“We just didn’t start well in the game and whatever it was down to, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb early on. We couldn’t affect it from there, so we were trying to change things in the second half.
“We had more of the ball and more of the play but just couldn’t quite get a goal, so congratulations to Newcastle. They came and did their job.
“It was just so disappointing from where we’d been, to start how we did, but that’s the learning. That’s what we have to look at now and get ready for another tough game at Liverpool.”
Facing Liverpool
Leicester’s final fixture of 2022 sees them head to Merseyside for a clash with Jürgen Klopp’s outfit on Friday evening (8pm GMT kick-off). The hosts returned with a win in the Premier League four days earlier, beating Aston Villa 3-1 at Villa Park.
Having competed at the very top end of the division over the past few years, Rodgers is expecting one of the toughest tests of the season.
The former Liverpool manager continued: “It’s very much still the same identity - Liverpool want to press, be aggressive, counter-press – all those aspects of the game are what you've seen over the last number of years. And playing at home, or away, they’ll want to create and score goals.
“It’s always a difficult game at Anfield and no one knows that more than myself. It’s a great challenge for us, but challenges are there to be overcome and it’s a great opportunity to get back out there in a fantastic game.”
The squad’s mentality
More work is now being done on the training pitch in order to rectify the errors that led to just a second loss in nine games across all competitions, the 49-year-old revealed in Wednesday afternoon’s pre-match press conference.
He commented: “Having waited so long and, off the back of a good run at home, we were all looking forward to the game and preparations were going really well throughout the off period. We felt ready, we’d worked really hard, and the players were naturally disappointed like we all were.
“We were due to have a day off (Tuesday), but we came in just to talk about it and assess it – and use that as the lever to move on. It was one of those ones – we spoke about it yesterday, it’s a game that we have to go away and learn from to move forward. Today (Wednesday), we get ready and be prepared for the game on Friday.
“These players have been full of effort and commitment and to pull the season around from where it was, with what they’ve done up until the Newcastle game, they’ve got so much heart and so much mentality.
“There’s no better indicator of this group’s mentality than if you look to this time last year. We lost away on Boxing Day against Manchester City, we conceded six goals and the very next game we were playing Liverpool and we won the game 1-0 with a really fantastic performance, very spirited against a top team. That tells you everything about this team.”
Daka’s tireless work
Striker Patson Daka was named in the starting XI for the reverse at home to Newcastle, one of eight Premier League starts this term, with a further seven substitute appearances yielding three goals and two assists for the Zambian. Although the tally is not as high as the 24-year-old would like, his manager is still pleased with the performances produced by the ex-RB Salzburg forward.
“With his team-mates, he’s really respected,” the Northern Irishman explained. “You see it on the training pitch every day. He’s a young player coming into the league and a totally different standard, but what I get from Patson is everything every day and in the games.
“The run that we’d been on, he played a big part in creating that energy that we wanted at the top end of the field with his energy and work rate and then that creates space for other players.
“He sometimes hasn’t got the goals that he would have liked, but I respect the work that he puts in to create the opportunities. He’s a guy that always wants to learn and always wants to be better and that will continue to be the case while he’s here.”