Rodgers: Disappointed With A Point, But It Could Be Crucial
- Leicester City were held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium on Friday night
- Jonny Evans equalised James Ward-Prowse's penalty for the 10-man Saints, who withstood heavy pressure throughout the encounter
- Manager Brendan Rodgers believes the Foxes lacked precision in their attacking play
- However, the Northern Irishman believes the point earned could be a crucial one for City
Despite Jannik Vestergaard's 10th-minute red card, the Saints went ahead early on in the second half through James Ward-Prowse's penalty, but City rallied and hit back as Jonny Evans scored his second header in three Premier League games.
That 1-1 draw keeps the Foxes third in the Premier League with four games remaining, but Rodgers says the tempo of their play, particularly in the earlier stages, could have been better.
"We’re disappointed with the point, especially with the circumstances of the game, playing with 11 vs. 10 for so long," he told LCFC TV. "Normally, in those situations, we’re very good.
"We looked a little bit tired, I’ve got to say, and it wasn’t really until they scored that we upped the tempo of our game. You have to give credit to Southampton. They defended well.
"They defended really strong and then, once they’ve got the goal, they’ve got a cause to fight for then. We had a lot of the ball and got into some good areas, but we just couldn’t find that precision in our pass and that final bit of quality to score.
"You sometimes just need that little bit of luck, that bit of quality, but there’s no excuses. Southampton deserved a point, there’s no doubt about that, and we didn’t do quite enough to win."
With so little games to go, any point could have a significant influence on final standings, however, and the Leicester manager says all focus is now on securing all three when Newcastle United visit King Power Stadium next Friday evening (8pm BST kick-off).
"That is the thing, I believe it will be [an important point]," the Northern Irishman added. "We know we still need to win more games from the final four, so that will be our focus now.
"We’ll go into next week against Newcastle, we’ll recover from this game.
"It’s been a tough schedule, this was the fourth game in 13 days, and I felt in that first 60 minutes, you could see that. We’ll recover now, have a good week next week and then look to go again next Friday."