- Brendan Rodgers analyses Leicester City’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Everton
- The Foxes were held at Goodison Park after Richarlison replied to Harvey Barnes’ opener
- Rodgers says Jamie Vardy could return to training this week following a knee injury
The Foxes led after only five minutes thanks to Harvey Barnes’ ninth goal of the season in all competitions, and while further goalscoring opportunities fell their way, Everton struck at the death via Richarlison.
Leicester are ninth in the division having played four games in the space of only 12 days. Although three points would have been a valuable result, Rodgers felt City still exhibited positive characteristics on Merseyside.
“Performance wise, we were outstanding in the game,” he told LCFC TV. “We controlled most of it, we’re just disappointed at the end to concede. Overall, the players put a great effort in and played some great football.
“Our movement and rhythm of the game was really good, our control of the game, our only disappointment was we couldn’t add to the one goal when we were in some really good positions.
“We’ve reinforced over these last couple of games that that’s important. If you want to be identified as a good team, you’ve got to start quick. We did that away at Newcastle, we did that here as well, started very well and passed the ball quick. We were dynamic in our game. It’s always important here to try and control the ball.”
Leicester forged several chances in either half, but after they were unable to build on Barnes’ strike, Everton were given a lifeline and grasped it when Brazilian forward Richarlison bundled home.
“We worked the ball through, I thought we did that for a lot of the evening,” he said. “In the second half, we could have made an extra pass to break their pressure and then we could have gotten into more areas and found a bit more quality in the final third.
“We just didn’t quite make our final pass, but overall, there’s confidence in the team and I’m really happy over the last couple of games. For a little while now, we’ve shown that we’re getting back to our level.
“Frank [Lampard’s] team had 11 days to prepare on the back of a really good result (winning vs. Manchester United). This was our fourth game in that period, but how we played was very good.
“It’s that final bit where you’ve got to concentrate, and I’m pretty sure, these last couple of games where we’ve given away points, at some point in the season we’ll learn from that and it’ll get us important victories.”
The manager also provided an update on the fitness of Jamie Vardy, who could return to training this week following a knee issue which has kept him out since early March.
Rodgers said: “He’s looking good, he’ll be training with the squad tomorrow. It’s great news for us. He gives us that extra dimension, so hopefully, all being well, he’ll join us tomorrow.”