Rodgers reborn: Leicester boss proves he can reinvent team

After that scoreline came a frustrating sense of bemusement – City had bossed the first half in open play against a top side with an elite manager, but felt drastically short of the required level from defensive set pieces and a softness in midfield. It was the draining of any sort of urgency in the tackle and how easily Spurs’ middlemen carved through that struck volumes that day.

At that point, supporter dissatisfaction was at an all-time high for Rodgers’ reign, and it felt like only a matter of hours before the club was posting a statement with the corner flag as its featured image. Fans were even beginning to turn on Khun Top for sticking with his man, as they were of course entitled to do within reason.

That result crowned the worst start to a season in terms of goals conceded for a top flight side since the 1960s, with 22 goals conceded in just 7 matches – an astonishing rate of over 3 goals shipped per Premier League fixture. From the next 7 games, astonishingly, the ball would only hit the back of Danny Ward’s net three times – with the Welshman keeping 5 clean sheets.

The turnaround has been astonishing, and completely unforeseeable, and the credit has to be applied predominantly to the manager. Rodgers has had the patience to allow the team to finally bed in to a coherent playing style, with the flexibility to adapt to a variety of different approaches, putting the chaos of the transfer window well and truly behind them.