Rodgers: We Showed Spirit & Resilience
- Leicester City draw 1-1 at Brentford in the Premier League
- Harvey Barnes netted the Foxes’ equaliser in the second half
- Brendan Rodgers assessed the performance with LCFC TV
- It was better from City, according to the manager
Mathias Jensen’s goal had the Bees ahead, but City hauled themselves out of a tough situation. Behind at the break, they were down but certainly not out. And once Harvey Barnes scored a neat leveller early on in the second half, it was Leicester, rather than the hosts, who looked the more likely to grab a winner, though that didn’t come.
“I think that it certainly breaks the cycle that we’re on,” the Northern Irishman told LCFC TV in his post-match assessment of the encounter. “It’s shown to be a really tough place to come this season. Many teams have suffered here, but I thought the players were really good.
“We’re unfortunate with the goal we gave away but other than that, we defended really well. They had lots of set pieces, lots of throw-ins and variety in terms of free-kicks and we stood up to that really well.
“Obviously it was just a case of finding moments of quality and we did that in the second half scoring a fantastic goal. Our concentration was really good in the game, our focus was good and it looked as the second half went on that we would maybe find a winner, but we just couldn’t quite manage that.”
Nevertheless, it was a more solid showing from Rodgers’ men and a first away draw of the season, showing their powers of recovery to come back in the face of adversity. Many more points will still be required in the fight to move away from the bottom three, but it’s a positive note to end on ahead of the international break.
The 50-year-old continued: “For what we lack in quality at times, we have a real honesty and spirit here in the group and I think we’ve seen that here today. I think you need that spirit and resilience if you’re coming here today. To get a point at Brentford, with the season that they’re having, we had it in bundles today.
“We showed great tenacity. Our pressing was good, we got in and around the ball in numbers, we won it back. Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] made a great pass to James [Maddison] and he is in the perfect position. It’s a great assist and Barnesy finishes superbly. It was a really good goal.”
On the fitness of the squad, Rodgers provided updates on how several players are looking heading into the short break from Premier League fixtures.
“We’re hoping some of those boys will be back soon,” he added.” The likes of Victor Kristiansen should be back in and Youri Tielemans will hopefully train in the second week of the international break.
“Hopefully Jonny [Evans] will be fine as well. We’ll assess that. Wout Faes will be back too, which will be good news. We should be healthier going into our next game.”