Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has heaped praise on David Moyes and his West Ham squad before the top-four clash on Sunday afternoon. Ahead of the match at the London Stadium, both managers were full of kind words for each other and what they have achieved so far this season.
Brendan Rodgers said: “They beat us well earlier on in the season. We came off the back of a really good result against Manchester City and then we got put in our place that weekend when we weren’t so good and they were very good. We know their qualities on the counter-attack.”
Michail Antonio in particular caused the Leicester manager a problem on the counter-attack, but unfortunately for the Hammers, he will not be available this weekend after suffering a hamstring injury on Monday against Wolves. Moyes would not provide any further information on the issue other than to confirm “I don’t think Mick is going to be able to make this game.”
But Brendan Rodgers is wary of another West Ham man: “Jesse Lingard is a top-class player,” he said. He is a high-level player as we have seen over a number of years. He maybe just dropped off his level for whatever reason but you can see since he has gone to West Ham the quality he has, the ability he has so he will be a big threat. David has done a great job. He has been able to bring players in and He’s moulded the squad into a tough team to beat. His organisational skills and experience as a manager. Alongside that, you need good players and they have some outstanding players. It’s unfortunate that Declan [Rice] is out because he is a top-class player but you look through the team from the goalkeeper [Lukasz] Fabianski, very experienced. The defenders are strong, they defend well, Cresswell has quality, Coufal on the side has been great since he came in, and then like I say you have the experience and the qualities of Mark Noble in there. Lingard and Michail Antonio have combined very well. And then on the sides [Pablo] Fornals is a talent and [Jarrod] Bowen has done great since he came in from the Championships and you can see they are a team that plays very well. They have been consistent and that is not much of a surprise given the qualities of the players and the manager.”
A win for West Ham will see them move to within one point of Sunday’s opponents and cement themselves as Champions League challengers. However, Rodgers reminded West Ham that despite their own recent form Leicester will provide a tough challenge for Moyes and his team this weekend.
Brendan Rodgers said: “We know we have to play a high-level game. We know it will be a tough game but also for them as well. They’ve had some fantastic results of late, we lost to a team [Manchester City] who with all due respect are on a different level to us, but other than that we’ve been in good form.”
