Rodgers: Desire As Important As Talent

- Leicester City drew 2-2 with Chelsea at King Power Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday
- Brendan Rodgers believes the Foxes will need to show desire, as well as talent, over the coming weeks
- The Northern Irishman also provided an update on the fitness of Wilfred Ndidi, who was absent
- Leicester's mentality to come back from behind, meanwhile, especially pleased their manager

Following Saturday's 2-2 draw with Chelsea, which maintained City's eight-point lead over the Blues, Rodgers was particularly pleased with the mentality shown by his side.

The Foxes came back from a goal down in the clash, with Harvey Barnes and then Ben Chilwell scoring, and while Leicester were unable to win it, Rodgers noted the mentality on show.

"The players showed a wonderful mentality," the Northern Irishman said. "Especially at this part of the season, it isn’t just about your talent. You’ve got to be able to have that desire.

"I thought the players had that in bundles. They showed great desire and great mentality to come from behind, to keep pushing and, right until the end, we were looking for the win.

"We still have a lot of work to do. We didn’t lose any ground on Chelsea, which is important, but there’s still a huge fight for us to stay where we are.

"That’s something we look forward to. This break will really help us refresh and reset and then we’ll look to get that consistency back for the rest of the season."

Meanwhile, midfielder Wilfred Ndidi was forced to miss out on the fixture after feeling pain in the build-up, with Rodgers revealing the risk was too great to play him in the game.

"There's nothing new on it," he clarified. "We just thought it was too big a risk really. He was down to play, even right up until the teamsheet going in, well before the game, but gradually he felt the pain.

"I can just tell. I’ve known Wilf long enough now. He’s a real warrior and a tough player, so to see him in the pain when he walker, it just made no sense to risk him.

"We took it out his hands, let him rest. He’s got a period of rest now, which will help his knee and Hamza [Choudhury] came in and did a fantastic job."

Rodgers wants to see a greater organisation from static positions, after both Antonio Rüdiger goals came from set-plays, but the Foxes manager did acknowledge his side's good record in that regard.

Despite that previously impressive track record from set-plays, Rodgers says he and his team will analyse Rüdiger's brace at King Power Stadium to prevent it from becoming an issue in future.

"Chelsea started better than us," the City manager continued. "We were a wee bit slow out of the blocks, but I thought we grew into the game and created some really clear chances.

"We showed great personality in the game to come back from behind and, by the end of it, we’re disappointed not to have won it, so it was a little bit frustrating.

"In the first half, weren’t getting tight enough, especially on the left side of our field, to stop the crosses, so at half-time, we addressed that and then it was much better.

"To then get done from static crosses was very frustrating. We just didn’t organise quick enough and didn’t have enough contact in the box.

"We’ll analyse that and be better for it because, this season, we’ve been very good at defending from set-pieces."