Brendan Rodgers insists he is at one with his players but says life at Leicester City cannot be rosy for them all of the time. The City manager was critical of his players after last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Brighton, saying his squad was “nowhere near the level I would want in terms of quality”, and that there was an issue with a lack of pride and care in possession that required “technically better” players to be signed as a solution. Ahead of the club’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Walsall on Saturday, Rodgers has dismissed concerns that his comments will have a negative impact on the confidence of those working under him. But he also outlined that he cannot avoid honest assessments.
Brendan Rodgers said: “The players know exactly where they’re at and they know I’m with them. I’m close with them on the pitch. I’ve been here long enough, and they’ve been here long enough, and they’ve improved their contracts. They’ve improved their lives. They know I’m here with them and supporting them. Sometimes you have to be harsh to be clear. When I’m talking about technical quality, I’m not saying you cannot improve it. But I expect from the players, despite that, that they come in every day to improve. I demand that every single day in training. There’s not a case here where I say that and the players are flat and they’re not confident. It’s a demand, it’s a standard. You have to improve every single day. We’re at the elite level of sport. It’s not all rosy in the garden all the time. My demand is to push us to be the very best we can be. You can’t keep patting people on the back all the time. Sometimes you have to be harsh to be clear. But there is a lot of positivity around, which is great. We have that on a daily basis. I am very much one with players. The guys there understand that. They know I’m there with them to make them better. They have improved a lot. Their contracts and everything else will tell you that since we have been here. But they will want that clarity and openness and that is something I have always done, so for them they are absolutely fine.”
Rodgers also denied that his reaction was any kind of ploy or strategy to generate a response from his players or push the club to spend in the final days of the January transfer window.
Brendan Rodgers added: “It’s not a tactic. It’s not a strategy, nothing clever. I’m not doing it so that someone else can hear. It was just my feeling of where the game was at. I’m not that clever to be strategically positioning things and you writing about it. I don’t have to get the players to read something, I can tell them to their face. I’ve never said anything that I haven’t said to the players themselves. I’d never do that. I’m always going to be supportive of my players.”
