Brendan Rodgers missed the boat at Liverpool and is lacking it once more. That high job is drifting.
“There’s two issues. Firstly it’s actually disrespectful to ask the query when you will have a supervisor in place, a very good supervisor and a very good man. Secondly I can’t actually touch upon it, as a result of it’s one thing that isn’t actual. I’m right here because the Leicester Metropolis supervisor, proud to be right here, privileged to be right here and totally dedicated to the gamers, the membership, the possession. That’s about it, all the opposite noise round that’s one thing we will’t management.”
It’s not the primary time Brendan Rodgers has needed to bat away hypothesis that he could possibly be poached from Leicester, however it might nicely be the final. Even this newest piece of conjecture felt compelled. Rodgers mentioned the rumours of Manchester United’s curiosity have been “not actual”, and in fact, it felt that manner for many of us.
You’ve obtained to time the soar proper as a supervisor, and Rodgers might now be lacking the boat for the second time in his profession.
He moved from Swansea to Liverpool and from Celtic to Leicester on the peak of his powers, however was nicely into an Anfield trough by the point he left Merseyside and is presently sliding from grace at Leicester. With all due respect to Celtic and Scottish soccer, a second transfer north of the border could be deemed profession give up, however depart the soar too lengthy and the choices will dwindle to the purpose – as they did post-Liverpool – the place he’s left with ‘massive membership’ choices restricted to lesser leagues.
This may increasingly all appear a bit hasty. Rodgers has carried out a superb job at Leicester. They’ve completed fifth within the final two seasons and received the FA Cup simply over six months in the past.
However on the again of a summer time window through which he was granted funds and constructed what seemed like a foolproof squad able to make that ultimate push for Champions League soccer, he’s now struggling to faucet into maybe his most enviable managerial high quality.
Leicester’s defending has been terrible. Solely Watford and Norwich have conceded extra targets this season, the Foxes haven’t saved a clear sheet for the reason that opening day, and no goalkeeper has been compelled into extra saves than Kasper Schmeichel. And the place Rodgers has beforehand shone within the face of absentee adversity, the accidents to James Justin and – particularly – Wesley Fofana, have hit Leicester for six.
Rodgers is, or was, a grasp of the manoeuvre: shifting formations, techniques and personnel to assist and ameliorate his workforce, seemingly regardless of the issues they encountered.
Caglar Soyuncu was a kind of sticking plasters. After simply 4 begins as Harry Maguire’s understudy in his debut Premier League season, Soyuncu grew to become the principle man following Maguire’s departure, the chiselled commander of a constantly stable defence.
He’s now an issue as an alternative of the answer, making rash choices and current out of place.
The 25-year-old has began each Premier League recreation. It’s as if Rodgers refuses to consider him to be a problem – the Leicester boss has carried out all the pieces however drop Soyuncu to ease his facet’s defensive woes, with £16million summer time signing Jannik Vestergaard an excellent, underused various.
There’s, after all, hope that the return of Fofana within the New 12 months will result in solidity and an upturn in type and outcomes. He’s an exquisite footballer. However there’s a sense that the injury carried out by then can be laborious to reverse.
On the identical stage within the earlier two seasons, Leicester have been second. They now sit tenth, having received simply 5 of their 14 video games. The laborious yards beforehand put in earlier than Christmas will now should be gained within the second half of this season – a interval through which Leicester have traditionally struggled below Rodgers.
The same season trajectory might finish Rodgers’ hopes of a high Premier League job. To ensure that a supervisor (significantly a British one) with no historic ties to land a kind of massive posts, they must be rattling close to good. He arguably has been for the final two seasons, however is now vulnerable to being lumped in with the Premier League normallows, having struggled to keep up a peak few would have anticipated, and being punished for it.
