A 1-1 draw at a top-quality Brentford side is an away point not to be sniffed at and Leicester City avoided dropping into the bottom three of one of the fiercest Premier League relegation battles in decades. Had they have fallen into the the drop zone, it might have made the club’s hierarchy have to make a huge but necessary decision.
But from outside the club, you would be forgiven for thinking all is fine at City and that unlucky Brendan Rodgers is merely being held back by the club’s lack of investment. Fans showing ‘Rodgers out’ banners will be dismissed as petulant supporters who have short memories less than two years since the Northern Irishman delivered them their first-ever FA Cup. But Leicester City fans are not new to this gaslighting that lazy football pundits seem to throw their way. So to help them out here are the reasons that show why foxes fans are unhappy with the current 6th highest-paid manager in the world struggling to keep his talented squad above the drop.
Second half equalising/winning goals = 1
Harvey Barnes delicate finish over David Raya was significant in that it was the first time this Premier League season that they have scored an equaliser or winning goal in a second half. It’s a hugely significant stat and you hope that it means the signs of turning a corner. But the fact it has taken this long to get a moment like this shows it might still be a blip. A slow reaction to games and a lack of half-time reaction when games need new ideas and mentality is Brendan’s trademark, he is reluctant to make changes at the interval even when games are running away from him and the fact it happened in this game seems an exception to the rule as opposed to a turning of the tide.
Leicester City have trailed in 19 of 27 Premier League games
Watching your team go down in games is never fun, it’s normally treated with gut-wrenching annoyance, but Leicester City fans have got so used to it this season that going a full 90 without going behind in a game is cause for celebration. Given this team’s complete lack of fight when behind in games it does tend to wear you down. Brendan’s teams tend to show an embarrassing lack of defensive quality which he blames on a lack of ‘concentration’, when we can all see it is a lack of organisation and cohesion that he has failed to meld together.
Furthermore, Rodgers has alienated international defenders Caglar Soyuncu and Jannik Vestergaard from the first-team squad (arguably with good reason) and instead relies on the ever-frustrating Daniel Amartey whose trademark is normally a misplaced pass into midfield opponents. Leicester City are not hard to beat or play against and Brendan has not found an answer to this since the wheels started to fall off his early promise in early 2020. This isn’t a new problem, it’s a Brendan problem.
3 Home league wins
If you want to keep the support on side, there’s no place like home. But not for Brendan Rodgers where his team consistently roll over and have their bellies tickled. Normally going behind ends in defeat and too often they’ve been left fruitless in attack. This team lacks a significant fight and whereas in previous seasons they struggled to close games out, they now struggle to stay in matches in the first place.
The atmosphere has gone flat at The King Power Stadium, a place that has seen extraordinary events in the last decade, but it is one that still loves to see endeavour, determination and grit. The fans have seen very little of that since returning from the pandemic in 2021 and they’ve been worn down by a team that flatters to deceive so often. They calmly go about their business playing football along the backline trying to find gaps in stubborn and well-drilled defensive opponents who know the game plan will not change from their over-coached hosts. The home fans inevitably get impatient at this complete lack of urgency and with the second-worst home form in the league it’s finally taken its toll.
3 Helpings of failure
Following Liverpool’s famous late-season collapse in 2014, it’s only natural that this would become a thing if Brendan created new and inventive ways of blowing things and he has deliver that at Leicester City in spades.
At LCFC the narrative is that he did well to deliver two 5th-placed finishes alongside his FA Cup, but Foxes supporters know the true picture. 2019/2020 was a prime opportunity to finish in the top 4 as top teams struggled to find form. Instead, Brendan’s team collapsed all the way with one particular thrashing at Bournemouth costing him so dearly. The following season he did it again with an even poorer set of teams flopping results, Leicester got thrashed at home to a terrible Newcastle United and contrived to lose to Tottenham Hotspur 4-2 despite leading the game with 15 minutes of the season left (hilariously he found an even crazier way to give Spurs three points the following season).
You could easily point fingers at Caglar Soyuncu or Kasper Schmeichel for key mistakes then, but the real problem was a manager that struggled to tactically get his teams to scrape a few points together to get over the finish line. They have no ability to grind results out and get involved in the dark arts of football to frustrate opponents. They are simply too nice and pleasant for any of that business which is why they missed out on the Champions League and an opportunity to push the club onto the next level.
The European football that Brendan did deliver was also blighted with failure, but of course the media paint it as a a triumphant semi-final defeat to Roma in the Conference League. But the faithful knew we only made that competition because we were too poor for the Europa league before being out-thought and out-fought by Jose Mourinho. What on earth makes anyone think Rodgers has the stomach for a relegation scrap when he has such a talent for failure?
£20million to be asked to leave
The Northern Irishman continues on the touchline with his arms folded watching the same games pan out, pausing only occasionally to do a little clap at a misplaced pass or to write something in his notebook, presumably how much money he will get from a payout when he is eventually sacked. Many media outlets report this as £10million a year with two years left on his contract. He does nothing to rally the team nor the supporters and it’s telling that the fans have never really sung songs for him consistently. We rarely see him get emotional about anything at the club and although I admire his ‘zen-like’ qualities, I see his players saunter around the pitch with the same mystifying lack of passion as he does in interviews. His recent interviews seem to be very much protecting his own brand for when he has to apply for his next Premier League role.
Rodgers has had some good times at Leicester City but even he struggled to convince anyone that he believed keeping them up would be one of his greatest-ever achievements given the squad is very similar to that of a couple of years ago. Even if he somehow keeps LCFC up, the Blue Army will want to see a managerial change to oversee a club rebuild. He looks lost at the club and refuses to play to his player’s strengths, over-complicating the game with long drawn-out passages of play that go nowhere. He is only looking after himself at the moment and that could well end in his greatest-ever failure unless the chairman acts soon.