Rodgers: Courage, Grit & Determination
- Leicester City showed their courage off the ball to grind out a goalless draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Friday, according to manager Brendan Rodgers
- The Foxes were reduced to 10 men following Hamza Choudhury’s second-half dismissal
- Rodgers was pleased with City’s defensive display at Molineux Stadium
Both sides threatened in either half, with Çağlar Söyüncü heading straight at Rui Patrício for Leicester’s best opportunity of the opening 45 minutes.
However, Hamza Choudhury was dismissed for a second bookable offence with just under 15 minutes to play, and Wolves set about finding a winner.
But City stood strong to repel the home side’s attacks, and earned a valuable point from the Premier League showdown at Molineux Stadium.
Rodgers told LCFC TV: “It was always going to be a tough place to come, but I thought in the first half, we controlled most of the game.
“Any spells that they had towards the end of the first half came from us really, giving the ball away and being a little bit loose.
“We got the benefit of the VAR where his (Pedro Neto) big toe I think was offside, but I thought over the course of the first half we were the better side and looked a greater threat.
“In the second half, as you’d expect, they came out and looked to impose their way a little bit more. Then, obviously, we went down to 10 men with 20 minutes to go.
“I thought we showed a great courage tonight and that was the determination that I think hasn’t quite been there in the team over these last number of weeks. It’s a different courage.
“There’s a courage with the ball and then you have to show that grit and determination without it. For the last 20 minutes with 10 men, I thought it was a brilliant piece of defending and I think it’s really set us up now for the remainder of the season.”
Rodgers credited several of his players for the way they dealt with the Wolves threat to secure their ninth clean sheet of the 2019/20 Premier League campaign.
He added: “They bring in Adama [Traoré] and you see the speed and quality that he brings into the game, but I thought Ben Chilwell dealt with it really, really well. He didn’t let too many crosses come in.
“I thought all across, the two centre-halves were incredible this evening, with and without the ball – calmness, the reading of the game and heading it.
“Across the back four, and Kasper [Schmeichel], he made a couple of saves, important saves, one in particular in the first half.
“Across the team, the team is fighting, the team is together and collectively it was the least that they deserved.”