Rodgers hints he’ll drop these underperforming Leicester stars
By Will Kennedy
What Brendan Rodgers has said
Brendan Rodgers knows the pressure that he and the squad are under at the moment, and addressed the media about his underperforming players in the aftermath of Saturday’s loss.
Speaking in the Leicester Mercury, Rodgers said:
"“Harvey [Barnes] is still getting up to speed fitness-wise. He had Covid and injury-wise he didn’t join the group at the beginning of the season so I still think he’s not at his level yet. He’s still such a threat. “The beauty of the squad now is that it’s competitive. We know if it’s not quite working for us, we can make changes, and like you see with Kels [Iheanacho] and Ademola [Lookman] coming into the game, they give us that extra energy, that pressing element, and they were a threat […] “We want to win every game. We will make changes. Our mindset is to go in and win every game and the squad is needed for that. Players are going to get game-time.”"
Most interestingly of all, Rodgers made this definitive statement:
"“We’re at a level where you have to be taking your opportunities otherwise there will be someone else coming in to play.”"
What are the possible squad changes?
There are a few key areas of the pitch that Leicester can – and should – rotate. The first is in defence, specifically the issue of Caglar Soyuncu. The centre-back has had a torrid start to the season – at both club and international game. The game against Man City was a better performance from the Turkish centre-half, but his big errors against West Ham and Norwich are nerving enough.
Jannick Vestergaard performed impressively well on his full debut for the Foxes, and Jonny Evans’ promising return from injury is joy to Leicester ears. If Vestergaard performs as well as he has started, then soon we could be seeing a starting partnership of both he and Evans, with Soyuncu dropping out.
Elsewhere on the pitch, Youri Tielemans and Wilfred Ndidi have started well, but Leicester City cannot afford to overload them with games and risk unnecessary injury to the heart of their midfield. As this schedule tightens up, we can expect to see the arrival of Boubakary Soumare and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as a rotating pair.