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Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers is excited for the new season
“The narrative will be what people want it to be,” says Brendan Rodgers. Sky sports.
“There is no right or wrong. If people want to say that we spent 33 of the 38 weeks in the Champions League venues and then we got lost and it’s disappointing, then that’s okay.
“If people mean the team had just had two ninth places, they had a much smaller budget than some of the teams that finished up, they didn’t have the depth of roster to stay in the top four, but they still managed to finish fifth and to secure European football, that is a narrative that is also correct. “
The mood surrounding Leicester right now is curious. It is true that the club entered this season having achieved its second best league result in almost 60 years.
It is also true that residual frustration persists at having lost a 14-point lead over Manchester United that has cost the club Champions League football this season.
Great achievement or missed opportunity? Maybe it’s both.
Choose your narrative.
Rodgers’ task now is to move on and two victories from the first two games of the new Premier League season have helped to achieve this. Leicester came to the top of the table the weekend before their disappointing journey to face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on Sunday.
Guardiola’s unique challenge
Rodgers is usually upbeat when he talks about the unique challenge ahead of him. He will soon be speaking passionately about Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich and the decision to bring the full-backs in to convince the best of wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.
“It was a change from what he had done in Barcelona and it was something that had not been seen before,” he explains. “Pep’s tactical innovations have been incredible.”
As Rodgers talks about Guardiola’s 3-4-3 formation, his use of a 4-3-3 “with a crooked winger” and even the “3-diamond-3” is as evident as ever that he enjoys this tactic. appearance. He will be on high alert in the opening stages at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, eager to catch any adjustments his City counterpart tried to make to surprise him.
“You know the principles,” says Rodgers. “They are going to build in the center of the field, they will play at a rhythm, they will open the field and they will get numbers inside. But an hour before the game you get the team card and then you meet the staff as well.
“Whenever you are a coach who can play with different systems, you always make the rival coach think. You think you know the way, but there are always surprises. A player appears playing in a different position. The first five or 10 minutes, they are analyzing the The team and the system. What they’re trying to do is prepare the players for that ‘what if’ scenario. “
Man City vs Leicester
September 27, 2020, 4:00 pm
To live 
It’s comforting to hear Rodgers in this frame of mind, with his appetite intact. The second half of last season must have taken its toll. Twenty-four points from the last 22 games represented a negligible performance for a team that had scored the same number in an eight-game winning streak early in the campaign, one that included that Southampton 9-0 win.
Momentum was lost with injuries to Wilfred Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira and James Maddison, so the news that the former could be out for 12 weeks is a concern for fans. But Pereira has returned to training, while Maddison and Jonny Evans have also returned.
Rodgers is as optimistic as ever about Leicester’s future, even if a summer of heavy spending by many of his superior rivals has put the scale of the task in focus.
“There are a lot of teams around us with great resources. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have that. But I think that also shows how well this team has done. We have to find a different way to be there. We can’t spend the money that They spend the teams around us, but can we find the solutions in another way? That is still exciting for me.
How can Leicester improve?
“First of all, we have several young players who can improve. Last season, we showed a lot of real potential in the squad. I always felt that two things would help us improve and continue to develop this process. One of them was time. That means time for working with the players who are here, making them better year after year, especially the young players.
“They will have benefited from last season’s experiences, good and bad. Time will improve James Maddison. Time will improve Harvey Barnes. Consistency will also make us better. That will come with the introduction of quality. Can we bring in players? “Who will help us improve? We have added two quality players. That is fantastic.”
He refers to Timothy Castagne, the Belgian full-back who has already made a quick impact with a goal and an assist in his first two games, and to Cengiz Under, the Turkish international on loan from Roma, who is capable of bringing creativity in the final third. .
A new forward would be welcome, another option in center-back also useful. But Rodgers is determined not to let success or failure in the marketplace dictate his mood. Far from the talk of narratives and transfers, there is, above all, the work in the training field.
“I am a coach,” he says. “I love working with the players. I’m going to really enjoy this process instead of spending it worrying about what I don’t have because I know there are still improvements, tactically and physically, to do for the players that are here.
“At the end of the window, I will be happy to work with the players that I have. If we can’t get players due to the pandemic and the restrictions that we have, it’s a shame. I’m going to work with the players that I have here, develop them and enjoy it.” .
2:59 FREE TO SEE: Highlights of Leicester’s victory over Burnley in the Premier League.
It’s not just about Maddison and Barnes. There were three homegrown players who started the Carabao Cup against Arsenal on Wednesday. Luke Thomas, the left-back, a “servant” to his winger, according to Rodgers. In midfield, Hamza Choudhury and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
All young Leicester players are capable of leveling up.
“Some levels,” Rodgers insists. “That’s the beauty of it all. What we’ve tried to do is set a standard in training every day: a mindset and an ambition to improve.
“I know from watching them that, in addition to what they have done, there is still a way to go for these players and they are hungry to do it. When you see that gap [between performance and potential] and you see how that gap can be closed, then that excites you. “
Next step for the Rodgers team
This season will be a different challenge for many of these young players simply because of the schedule that awaits them. During the Premier League era, Leicester participated twice in the UEFA Cup and twice were eliminated in the first round.
This Europa League campaign will be different. The first three of the six group matches will be played in consecutive weeks starting next month. While there are some on the team who participated in the team’s Champions League race, this will be a new experience for many.
“With so many games it will be difficult to work with such intensity. So there will be a lot of recovery, a lot of analysis through video, both individually and as a team. And, of course, there is a huge psychological factor in him also because you are traveling everywhere. It’s exciting to have European football, but of course it brings its challenges.
“That was the ambition that came here. Could we take this club to Europe? We were able to do it. Now, the biggest challenge is to stay there. The challenge this year will be difficult for many players because you have to be robust.” You have to be strong both physically and mentally. It’s a big challenge, but that’s where we want to be. “
The demands will also require tactical flexibility. Leicester have had some success with a 4-3-3 formation, but Rodgers is encouraged by the way his team adapted to use a 3-4-1-2 by beating Sheffield United in July. Castagne’s time as a left-back in Atalanta opens up the possibility of him switching sides to accommodate Pereira’s return. There are options.
“I like that the team can play with different systems and play them well,” he adds. “This team has shown that. So it is a constant evolution, but the basic principles remain the same.
“I always want the team to get the ball back as soon as possible. There’s a lot of technical jargon in the game, but it’s about finding space when you have the ball, trying to overload midfield, and then when the other team has it, trying to deny the space. All the work and all the tactics will be based on that. “
Work to prepare for Manchester City began earlier this week, despite the team’s cup commitments on Wednesday night. Eleven team changes for the Arsenal game mean some of the key players will have been taking it into account for some time.
“We drip feed it through the week. We look at the challenges our defenders face, the kinds of runs they can do, how we push the game and where we put the pressure. We’ll show footage of that on Saturday and then go over our final preparations for the game. It’s a drip feed without overloading them too soon.
“So, you hope you’re ready.”
Watch Manchester City vs Leicester live on Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Main Event starting at 4pm on Sunday; start at 4.30 pm
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