Rodgers has possibly taken Leicester as far as he can

The fans have asked whether manager Brendan Rodgers has possibly taken Leicester City as far as he could have? Has the boss ultimately reached his ceiling? The answer after yesterday should comprehensively be yes, he has.

The worrying signs were ever-present as the Foxes traveled to Naples for their final fixture of the UEL group stages. The equation was simple- win or draw, there was no room for a loss. A loss would yield Leicester City with a potential third-place finish, which meant they’d drop into the newly formed Europa Conference League.

Rodgers’ side failed to achieve the absolute must as Napoli beat them by 3-2. Elsewhere, Spartak Moscow’s 1-0 win at Legia Warsaw in the other game sealed LCFC’s fate. No one in their right mind would like to be where the King Power club is right now. After securing back-to-back UEL qualifications, the third-tier competition does look disappointing. What is more concerning is the Blue Army isn’t confident enough of steamrolling through that tournament either.

"“I have to be honest – I don’t even know what the competition is in all fairness. I was focused on the Europa League and winning this group. At the very least, finishing second so with all due respect to the competition, I’m not sure what it is. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.”– Brendan Rodgers on the Conference League."

What can Leicester City realistically do?

At this point, deep introspection is impending. All the things that are going terribly wrong with the outfit should be rationally analyzed. Maybe starting with the manager’s lack of understanding and problem solving is a good idea.

It is absolutely shocking how long Leicester City has struggled under the exact same issues. Faulty defending, set-piece mismanagement, individual errors have become the frailty of its underbelly. The manager has avoided addressing the real problems whenever asked by the media.

"“I think we’ve done that [gone back to basics],” Rodgers added. “I think there’s a lot of naivety in our team and we’ve got a lot of young players. There’s been a bigger demand from them this season, and we’ve played a number of different systems and shapes. Individually it then comes down to having that mentality to track our runner or to stop a cross."

"“That can be in whatever shape it is, but it’s my responsibility to find that solution. Tonight, we were good offensively but we were nowhere good enough defensively. I said to the players [at half-time] if we could just tighten up the gaps, and do the dirty side of the game.”"

"“We’ve got to do more to block the shot for their first goal from their first attack. We needed to be more aggressive, the second goal we jump at the wrong time and that opens up the space and for the third goal, you’ve got to track the runner and stop the cross. These are the basics of the game we aren’t doing so well.”Source: Sky Sports"

He has reflected the arrows with modest and illogical answers. Players like Kasper Schmeichel, Çağlar Söyüncü, Ryan Bertrand and Jannik Vestergaard have been abysmal this season. Yet Rodgers remains adamant in playing some of these players, and thus, the problems remain there. Why has the coaching staff been incompetent to answer back or resolve them is a curious find.

Missing out on securing UCL twice broke the fans’ hearts. To see the team beyond the realms of securing European competitions is a reality now. Backing the manager and standing by him is not changing a thing.

The team is going down with the Premier League becoming more competitive by its nature. Now is not the time for debates about what’s right and what isn’t. It’s time to act. We feel that the Northern Irishman has reached his ceiling.

Others have deciphered his tactics and their weak points; those sides easily rip open and pry upon his weakness. It has become a pattern unfortunately, which the boss has struggled to nullify.