Rodgers on atrocious ref and his own foolish corner decision

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has commented on the clearly atrocious refereeing from the loss against Roma in the Europa Conference League. In addition to attempting to explain his own inexplicable decision to have Ricardo Pereira mark Tammy Abraham.

Foxes of Leicester are not over the feeble and disheartening defeat to Jose Mourinho‘s team on Thursday evening. Evidently the Foxes were not at their usual standard, with many typical stars underperforming. Therefore they only really have themselves to blame for being knocked out by the Italians.

Nevertheless, there was some absolutely unforgivably inept refereeing which should really be investigated by UEFA for incompetence. LCFC supporters were rightly outraged by many of the judgements of referee Srdjan Jovanovic, and promptly took to social media in their hundreds to denounce the official.

Rodgers, boss of the East Midlands outfit, also offered his opinions on the adjudicating in the UECL contest:

"On the officiating, Rodgers said: “I was very disappointed. I’m not sure if the game was too quick, or if maybe it was the atmosphere, but it felt like virtually every decision went against us.”"

Leicester City boss attempts to justify his baffling and costly set-piece choice and why he didn’t rectify it

Having efficient set-piece defending is the Northern Irishman’s kryptonite – there is no way around that. For a capable elite coach, Rodgers has effectively enabled any opponent to exploit the Foxes, especially on corners, every time they have the chance.

Some King Power players should look in the mirror and question their bravery, desire and capacity to defend properly, too. This issue is becoming laughable, and costs the side vital matches and points. There are fans who want the former Liverpool gaffer to leave LCFC. FoL is not of that view, currently. Though if Rodgers is to be entrusted with the summer rebuild – he must devise a new strategy or acquire better suited defenders and arguably a modern goalkeeper to cope.

But why did ‘BR’ have average height Ricardo mark a towering Abraham, and not correct it using Jonny Evans or somebody following the goal? Let’s see what Rodgers says:

"“They’ve [Roma have] got five big threats [tall personnel on set-pieces]. When you think of the three centre-halves and then Zaniolo up front and then with Tammy, that mismatch was going to be somewhere and unfortunately that’s where it came to (with Ricardo).”"