I’m Proud Of The Team, Says Rodgers
- Leicester City played with quality against Manchester City on Monday night, according to manager Brendan Rodgers
- The Foxes were beaten 1-0 by the Premier League leaders following Vincent Kompany’s sensational goal
- Rodgers says City will aim to play with the same personality against Chelsea next weekend
The Foxes stood strong for the majority of the game and looked dangerous on the counter-attack in Manchester, but fell behind on 70 minutes after Vincent Kompany fired a stunning shot into the top corner.
While Rodgers felt City were unfortunate to return to Leicestershire empty-handed, their display against the Premier League leaders provided the Northern Irishman with optimism at the final whistle.
“I thought the first half in particular, we played with a lot of quality,” Rodgers told LCFC TV. “Our confidence was good in our build-up play and we played through their pressure and gave them a lot of problems.
“We needed to carry that into the second half and we didn’t, so we’ll analyse that. We started to go a little bit longer with our build-up play and the problem with that is it gives you a little bit of a rest for one second, but then it comes back quicker.
“That’s what happened in the build-up to their goal. We got deeper and deeper. We recovered when they scored and we started to play again. We had probably the best chance in the game with young Kelechi [Iheanacho], which unfortunately he didn’t take.
“It was just one of those games, but I’m very proud of the team. I think the performances that we’re starting to see now, especially against the big teams, bodes well for our future.”
With Chelsea next up at King Power Stadium on Sunday, Rodgers wants the Foxes to show the same level of assertiveness during their final fixture of 2018/19.
He added: “I think that our idea is to come into any stadium with a personality to play how we want to play. We’re still very early in our development, but the courage the players showed tonight was fantastic and it gives us great possibilities going forward.
“That will be our ambition going into the game [against Chelsea]. Again, that will be a tough match for us, but we will go in to play with quality and play with our idea to go and perform. That’s what we’ll aim to do.”