How Brendan Rodgers improved Leicester after disappointments

It’s been a difficult season to predict for Leicester City, good performances have always been sandwiched with lacklustre ones, injuries have decapitated any consistency in the starting XI, and the output in all the competitions has fallen short of recent successes. But, without European football, Brendan Rodgers has managed to find consistency in results/performances to tail off the season.

A simple, but effective dismissal of two of the already relegated sides—Norwich City and Watford—was followed by a really impressive defensive performance away at Chelsea. I’ve been quite vocal around Rodgers’ coaching, and perhaps not understanding the ideologies behind it, but a lot of the credit has to fall on his shoulders after the Foxes perfected a flexible and complex defensive structure at Stamford Bridge.

Contextually, I think it’s important to note the lack of quality in the aforementioned opposition making this run of improved performances easier to achieve. However, even in the convincing victories, Rodgers still had to adjust his structure to limit turnover dominance for Norwich City. Nampalys Mendy replaced Ademola Lookman at half-time, and that stopped the Canaries midfielders from advancing centrally after a turnover of possession. This reclaimed freedom for the midfield/forwards of Leicester City, and thus controlled the game from this point onwards, albeit after allowing Teemu Pukki a couple of high xG (expected goals) chances.