Since the announcement of Brendan Rodgers sacking from Leicester City Football Club, the media has rallied round in support to tell all the Foxes fans how wrong we were. Martin Samuel even stated that ‘Pep Guardiola would’ve struggled to do a better job than Rodgers‘, which is dramatically unlikely. So let’s dispel the myths and expose the media for what they are: people that have spent more time writing about where LCFC have gone wrong and less time watching Brendan Rodgers’ incompetent football for the last two seasons.
Myth 1: Brendan Rodgers wasn’t given funds
This is the sort of thing that was seen spouting from Shay Given in an interview when trying to offer an opinion on Sky Sports not long after the news broke of Rodgers sacking. This sort of comment is backed up by Columnists like The Guardian’s Ed Aarons who noted that since the 2018/2019 season, only Brighton & Hove Albion has a net spend lower than City. The only problem is that it is slightly irrelevant as it relies on having some much-needed context applied to it. The cost of the squad is actually £362million and is the ninth highest in the division and also Brighton seem to be managing on weaker resources than ours.
We would all recognise that he had been dealt a short hand last summer with very little money spent on the squad. Only when Wesley Fofana was sold were they able to bring in the Belgian centre-back Wout Faes. But in January such issues were not as founded as the club brought in Viktor Kristiansen, Harry Souttar and Tete only for a host of poor performances to follow.
During the Northern Irishman’s time, he presided over the departures of Harry Maguire, Ben Chilwell and the petulant Wesley Fofana, but none of those areas have been left short without adequate replacements brought in for the foxes to not be worrying about their Premier League status. It is a flimsy excuse at best and one that Rodgers has trotted out at every opportunity in interviews all season. It will no doubt get him his next job in the Premier League. But LCFC and Liverpool fans have seen the sweet and the sour of his management to know best what to expect.
Myth 2: the ex-boss gave Leicester City two fifth placed finishes and a European Semi-final
He certainly did. When Leicester City was in the fantastic position of gaining Champions League football, which Rodgers helped get them to, he somehow managed to lose out at the very final hurdle. The first time just seemed one of those things and with the pandemic, it seemed churlish to criticise a significant rise in the table from the previous seasons. Even though we knew the 4-1 capitulation at Bournemouth was crazy and losing to a poor Norwich City was inexplicable, we just put it down to one of those things.
Fast-forward twelve months and Leicester were in a slightly better position and were fresh from winning the FA Cup – a trophy the Blue Army will always be grateful for. But when they simply needed to halt a stuttering Chelsea side in the league and frustrate them he couldn’t do it. Likewise, on the final day of the season Leicester City simply needed to beat Spurs to get into that top four. With 15 minutes of the season remaining they were on their way, winning 2-1 before capitulating 4-2 and letting in more late goals.
Previous results at home to a terrible Newcastle United and dropping points away to a 10-man Southampton were difficult to shake. All the while this was happening Liverpool fans, couldn’t help but be reminded of Brendan’s ability to throw away results seemingly nailed on.
As for Europe, the first foray in 2020/2021 was a comfortably won group before exiting to Slavia Prague weakly. The following season they were knocked out of a group when they should have been able to finish second comfortably. They were relegated to the Conference League and got past Randers, Rennes and PSV respectfully before a no-show against Jose Mourinho’s Roma where they managed to turn into the invisible men for 90 minutes in the famous Olympic Stadium.
Myth 3: He’s an elite coach
Leicester City fans can’t agree with this as when you watch some of the most hilariously incompetent set-piece defending for over two seasons it tends to grind you down. Many analysts on football shows like Match Of The Day or Monday Night Football would point out the calamitous errors on a regular basis. The foxes would add to this with basic defending mistakes on a consistent basis.
As the attacking flair of his more forward-thinking players dried up, his defensive flaws as a coach would be constantly exposed. It’s worth remembering that up to his last game in charge, he had gone 13 Premier League games without a clean sheet. The players absolutely deserve their share of the blame in this regard, but for a manager that was on a reported £10million a year to not address this defensive shambles was negligent. Let’s also not forget that when Wesley Fofana returned to the side last season, the foxes still couldn’t keep things tight at the back. He may go on to his next Premier League job and be a success, but I’ll be surprised if he is ever given as long as he managed at the King Power Stadium ever again and certainly not on the fortunes he yielded from the King Power Group.
Myth 4: He deserved more time
The simple fact was that he was given way too much time. At the start of the 2022-23 season, his attitude was obvious, not that the media even acknowledged it. On the opening game of the season with the team comfortably 2-0 up at home to Brentford in a sweltering stadium he stubbornly made only one substitution out of five because the team limped to a 2-2 draw against a resurgent Bees team buoyed by all available fresh legs off the bench. Rodgers knew the point he was making to the board: he was unhappy with the squad and refused to pick some decent players off the bench. It was a pig-headed move and would cost him as he went on to have to wait till October before the foxes registered their first Premier League victory of the season.
This season has been a shambles! Foxes fans have enjoyed only three home victories all season and have seen the team lose 20 times in all competitions. Late collapses are common and losing games when conceding first have become the norm. The cup victories have seen the team scrape victories against Stockport County on penalties and Gillingham and Walsall by lucky goals before crashing out to Championship Blackburn Rovers. The squad now lacks character, confidence as well as craft as they find themselves facing the very real prospect of relegation from the Premier League for the first time since they faced it in 2014/2015 before a spectacular escape.
Myth 5: He could have gotten the team out of trouble
We’ll never know and the club couldn’t wait any longer to find out. Despite saying the words in many of his interviews, Rodgers had no idea how to instil any fight or fresh ideas into performances that were just a constant mess and embarrassment throughout. Playing James Maddison out of position, along with constantly changing in-form players like Kelechi Iheanacho and Nampalys Mendy for weaker counterparts was not working.
Despite the former Liverpool boss’s cheerleaders like Martin Samuel subliminally intimating that the club was lucky to be in the presence of the supposedly great man, the club had to act now regardless. Of course, we will forever be grateful for winning the FA Cup and some European adventures. Brendan gave us some great moments, but he also gave us some horror shows and to get us this near to relegation is truly unforgivable as we all know the cost of dropping out of World football’s richest league. It’s the least the foxes fans deserve from one of the world’s best-paid managers who seemed to be desperate for the sack since last summer.