Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers said he is happy for supporters to air their views after his decision to bring off Ademola Lookman was by the crowd at the King Power Stadium. The Leicester City manager withdrew Lookman with 12 minutes to play in the 2-2 draw with Burnley on Saturday after an impressive showing from the winger, on what was his first start for the club in the Premier League. James Maddison came on in his place, the England international having been left out of the Premier League line-up for the first time this season. Rodgers said that Lookman was tired, having also started in the midweek win over Millwall, and would begrudge supporters reacting in the way they did to the change.
Brendan Rogers said: “The reason behind it was that Ade had played in the week and he’s just settling into the squad and into our way of working. He played 65 minutes during the week, and we had taken him off knowing he was going to start in this game. I thought in particular in the second half he was excellent. He started to tire a little bit. The idea was to try to bring in another player who could create something and in my time here, James Maddison, has in the main, been outstanding. It’s a player of real talent that we’re bringing into the team to try to unlock the defence towards the end because we had a lot of ball and pressure in that area. That was the reason why. I’ve been here nearly two-and-three-quarter-years, that’s probably the first time the fans have booed, so I’ll take that after that period of time. I would never judge supporters on airing their feelings in the stadium, that’s part of the decision making as a manager. Some you get right, some you won’t, but ultimately you have to be decisive and try to affect the game to try to win the game.”
City outshot Burnley 22 to nine in the game, and Rodgers was happier with the attacking performance than what he has seen of late, with Jamie Vardy scoring twice amid a handful of chances. But the defending left him concerned.
Brendan Rogers said: “It was a little frustrating in terms of the result. We were much better going forward, we were much more creative, we created numbers of opportunities and scored two excellent goals. Burnley defended their box so well, they made some great blocks and last-ditch tackles. I’m more worried about how we defended, we can be much better in terms of our defending. Overall, we created enough and a point was deserved in the end.”
