When Claudio Ranieri was sacked by Leicester City, ‘player power’ was a hot topic. Time and again we have seen number of clubs sacking their managers for losing the dressing room and when the players down tools. It was a similar story at Leicester according to many onlookers. For some of the players at the club at the time, those claims remain a point of frustration. But new manager Brendan Rodgers has explained how he chose a group of six players to be leaders at the club, on and off the pitch.
Brendan Rodgers said “I wanted a mix of young and senior players, [Tielemans] is of the younger generation and he can relate to the foreign players. It is a really good mixture of experience and younger guys and that helps to make sure that the message gets out there to everyone. It is about having that balance. That group of six then collate the ideas and thoughts of the group and they will liaise with myself. They are the pillars and can influence the dressing room in a positive way. He had a small group of players who were right there with him, That 20 per cent would virtually control the 80 per cent of the group. I remember as a young coach thinking back then that this was clever. If you are going to control a changing room you cannot be there every single moment to watch over them but if you have got guys who can be the pillars of the group who can come along with your work then they can really help you a lot. It stuck with me. I always thought that if I moved into management I would use it. There are things people don’t really see because they aren’t playing, They are at 150 per cent every day in training. When we train set-pieces, they are the ones telling the opposition attacking players what they need to be doing to cause problems in a game. They are actually coaching within the session. That is invaluable for a manager.”
