Brendan Rodgers wants Leicester City to treat every game like a cup final

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers wants his side to treat each of the remaining six fixtures like a cup final.

After an excellent 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth – their first against them in the Premier League – Leicester have gone level on points with seventh-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers (44).

But Wolves have a game in hand, meaning that Leicester must continue to win their games in order to maintain the pressure. They drop points in one and it could have a huge bearing on the season – that’s how precariously poised things are for them.

Rodgers understands this well. While he does realise that it will take time for the players to adapt to his system, he wants everyone to give his best and be prepared to give every game the importance of a cup final.

"“The reason I came is that they’re a fantastic group of players,” said the Northern Irishman. “It is going to take time to holistically get over our ideas so it becomes the norm for the players,” Rodgers said.“What they have shown is a wonderful appetite to learn and embrace how we want them to play.“Like I say they have shown really good tactical ideas in the games and that is very pleasing.“We want to do our best until the end and treat every game like a real cup final.“If you want to succeed in the game you have to put maximum intensity into it and in the Premier League every game is tough and is a real challenge.“I think we’ve seen that today, the hunger in the players and how focused they were on the game.“We had a lot of chances and opportunities but we took the most important ones and kept a clean sheet which is equally important.”"

Leicester’s next six fixtures are:

Huddersfield Town (A)

Newcastle United (H)

West Ham United (A)

Arsenal (H)

Manchester City (A)

Chelsea (H)

The next two games are both must-wins for Leicester because of how tough the four thereafter are.

Of course, judging by how the Foxes are playing, they could get at least a point each against Arsenal, City and Chelsea but, that will only happen if they go into those games with momentum and wins against an already relegated Huddersfield and Newcastle.

Whatever their position at the end, though, at least Leicester fans will feel more secure and confident about the next season. Rodgers has already overseen a turnaround but his revolution will only truly begin in the 2019/20 campaign.