Rodgers Highlights Leicester's Resilience In Saints Draw

- Leicester City drew 2-2 with Southampton at St. Mary's Stadium on Wednesday
- Foxes manager Brendan Rodgers was disappointed with the mentality and attitude early on
- However, his side's performance in the second half was a source of encouragement
- He also discusses the performances of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and James Maddison

Jan Bednarek's third minute effort for the Saints was equalised by Jonny Evans, but when Ché Adams restored the home side's advantage, the Foxes went in at the interval behind again. James Maddison, though, applied a finish to a superb move he started himself four minutes into the second half.

Both sides had opportunities later on, but it was Leicester who arguably had the clearer-cut ones, as Harvey Barnes was denied by Alex McCarthy, before Jamie Vardy curled over the bar too. Although frustrated with aspects of the first-half performance, Rodgers was more pleased at full-time.

"A poor first half, a poor mentality and attitude," the Northern Irishman told LCFC TV. "In the second half, it was much better, much more aggressive in our game. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall coming in changed the dynamic of the team; energy, quality, enthusiasm, mentality. He was excellent.

"That just got us playing, passing in the game quicker, running quicker, being more aggressive when we didn’t have the ball. In the second half, we earned the right to play and we were much better.

"It's the one thing you can say about the team, the resilience of the players is there, you can see that. That’s something that we’ve built up over this time that we’ve been working together. We’re not a team that’s going to unravel.

"Our spirit is there, but there’s got to be a greater concentration from the beginning of games."

Maddison's entire contribution and that which led to Leicester's second equaliser attracted praise from his manager with the England midfielder delivering a string of impressive performance for the Foxes.

"It was a brilliant goal," Rodgers added. "I thought when he got on the ball, he looked dangerous. His run for the second goal… initially, he has the courage, he takes it, spins out and takes us up the pitch and then, from there, he got into a great position. It’s great ability and he finished it really well.

"That gave us a bright start to the second half."

On City's two major second-half chances, he added: "Alex is a first-class 'keeper, he’s a great shot-stopper, so he makes the save from Harvey when he looked in. Jamie... you’d back to score all day long. It looks like it was just on the stretch, just trying to open up his body, and it ended up going over."

Leicester are one fixture into a nine-game December, but the manager has no complaints about the schedule - calling on his players to rise to the occasion - an opportunity which has been afforded to them as a result of qualifying for Europe. 

"That’s the job isn’t it?" he explained. "That’s what you get paid for. We’re trying to get stability in the team, but of course, it’s a busy period and a busy schedule. We have to be able to cope with that. That’s the challenge of European football. The players have done brilliant over this last couple of seasons.

"We’re in Europe and that’s always a challenge for a team and a squad like ourselves, but we’re fighting. We want to give it a go and we’re working very hard."