No Real Change For Us, Says Rodgers
- Leicester City welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to King Power Stadium on Sunday (7:15pm kick-off)
- Brendan Rodgers has discussed the hectic nature of the schedule which awaits the Foxes in December
- The 47-year-old believes City's experience in Europe will stand them in good stead this month
- Rodgers also provides an update on the conditions of several players who are awaiting returns
Thursday's 2-0 victory over AEK Athens, sealing top spot in Group G of the UEFA Europa League, was City's 18th competitive outing of the 2020/21 season.
Now, ahead of the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday (7:15pm kick-off), the Foxes have another five fixtures to contend with across the three weeks to come before New Year's Day.
However, despite there being no let up for his fourth-placed side, Rodgers is confident that Leicester will be able to continue adapting to testing circumstances over the festive period.
"The beauty of being in European football is that there’s no real change," the Northern Irishman said. "We’ve been constantly playing with a lot of games, with very little coaching time and preparation time. But one of the key challenges for us overcoming this season was going to be adaptability.
"The players have done that in a physical capacity, but also in a tactical capacity. My ideal footballer is able to interpret different ways to play and different styles.
"The players have shown how to do that in different systems, so they’ve coped with it really, really well. They’re a very focused group. We’ve got great honesty in our group.
"Whatever team we’ve played and whatever system we’ve played, they’ve played it to their maximum and, so far, it’s been very good, but it’s still relatively early in the league."
Rodgers was also asked to provide an update on some of the Foxes stars who are currently continuing their recoveries from injury complaints.
James Maddison (knee) was rested for Thursday's AEK outing, while Timothy Castagne (hamstring), Çağlar Söyüncü (adductor), Daniel Amartey (hamstring) and Ricardo Pereira (adductor) have also been out.
"James is fine," Rodgers confirmed on Friday. "Like I said, we gave him a rest last night. He’s just finished training and was absolutely brilliant, so he’s fine.
"Timothy Castagne, again, is training very, very well. He will probably just miss out for this weekend, but we’ll see where he’s at in midweek and the following weekend, but he’s looking good.
"Çağs, the same. We probably just need to build him up a little bit more, but he’s not too far away.
"Daniel Amartey has come back into training and has trained very well. It’ll just be a process with him and when we can introduce him back into any games that we can.
"Ricardo’s probably a bit further behind, with his adductor, so you’re probably looking at a couple more weeks for him."
All times GMT.