Rodgers explains what he got wrong in awful Leicester defeat

Following a disappointing Europa League exit to Slavia Prague last night, Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers opened up about his poor team selection.

Leicester City crashed out of the Europa League at the hands of Slavia Prague on Thursday night, with many of the Blue Army viewing this as a real missed opportunity to get their hands on some silverware. Without a single goal scored over two legs, it was an uncharacteristically poor showing from a side that sits third place in the Premier League.

After such a result, attention is understandably turning towards gaffer Brendan Rodgers, but he’s not shying away from blame. Speaking to LCFC TV, the Northern Irishman commented:

“If you assess the two legs, we didn’t create enough opportunities and then we didn’t defend well enough, with enough intensity in the games.”

Indeed, Leicester City could have played another 180 minutes and probably wouldn’t have scored. However, this issue boils down to Rodgers’ team selection, on which he said:

"“We tried to give some players a rest and make changes, but I’ll take responsibility for that.”– Brendan Rodgers"

“Rodgers’ curse” continues at Leicester City

It seems that in his attempts to ease Leicester City’s injury crisis, Brendan Rodgers effectively forfeited this knockout tie to Slavia Prague. I can empathise with his decision, and it’s good to see a manager open up about what they got wrong, but it’s ultimately a very disappointing way to exit a cup we could have had a real shot at.

Considering Leicester had returned from the Czech Republic with zero away goals, it’s baffling to me that Rodgers would pick such a defensive team, effectively gambling on  a 1-0 victory at home. However, Leicester would have been lucky to grab even a single goal with a team so devoid of creative impetus. Ricardo Pereira and Timothy Castagne mysteriously omitted from the back four. Two defensive midfielders. Harvey Barnes dropped for Marc Albrighton. An out-of-form Jamie Vardy leading the line. It was a recipe for disaster from minute one.

And so it is, that the so-called “Rodgers’ curse” strikes again. Five attempts at reaching the last 16 with Liverpool, Celtic and now Leicester, and five failures. Though with some form of European football looking promising next season, Rodgers will hopefully get another shot at breaking his duck, hopefully next time in the Champions League!