Brendan Rodgers admits he’s ‘under pressure’ ahead of Leicester’s trip to Liverpool
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Updated 09/02/2022 at 20:02 GMT
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers will return to his former club at a low ebb, having presided over an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup at the weekend. Speaking ahead of Leicester’s visit to Anfield on Thursday, he conceded that he is ‘open to criticism’ given the slip in his side’s standards this season.
Brendan Rodgers applauds the away fans at the City Ground following Leicester’s loss
Image credit: Getty Images
Brendan Rodgers has admitted that he’s “under pressure” ahead of Leicester’s trip to Liverpool on Thursday.
Rodgers will return to his former club at a low ebb, having presided over an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup at the weekend. Despite threatening a fightback after Kelechi Iheanacho capitalised on a goalkeeping mistake late in the first half, the Foxes had been soundly beaten by their Championship opponents come the final whistle.
Having finished fifth for the last two seasons running and won the FA Cup in May, Leicester’s standards have slipped this term. While they have been hampered by injuries, with Wesley Fofana, Jonny Evans, Timothy Castagne and Jamie Vardy all still sidelined, they are currently 10th in the Premier League and will arrive at Anfield on a three-match winless streak in all competitions.
Speaking ahead of the game, Rodgers conceded that he is in a tight spot at the moment. Asked if he still has the board’s backing after the defeat to Forest, he said: “I’ve never felt I haven’t, but I also understand football.
“I’ve got a great relationship here with the people at the club, a very close working relationship with everyone, but I understand you have to get results.
“Whatever happens to me in the future, those relationships don’t change, they’re great people here [and] have always supported me.
“This year has been challenge after challenge and primarily because of the players we have missing, but of course the weekend’s result wasn’t great, so you can’t mask over that and I would never try to.”
Asked whether the humiliating nature of the defeat to Forest made the situation worse, he said: “Certainly when you lose you’re always open to criticism, so I was pretty sure that would have been the case on the Monday and that’s part of the job.
“For me, you’ll always be under pressure when you’re not getting results, you can’t deny that.
“We’ve had a great run here for a period of time, but when results [aren’t good], especially like the one at the weekend, that will always put you under pressure as a manager.
“I get that and understand that. It’s not something I shy away from.”
Despite his precarious situation, Rodgers suggested that he is planning a “healthy shake-up” of his squad in the summer. Having beaten Liverpool at the King Power Stadium in December, he will be hoping that his side can breathe new life into their campaign at Anfield.
“We want to finish as high as we possibly can in the league, we’re still in a cup competition [the Europa Conference League], so we want to go as far as we can in that,” he added.
“I hope that we can get players back and show our true level at some point before the end of the season, and not just the true level, but the consistency of that. That would be the aim.”
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