It’s football, stranger things have happened. I’d feel pretty bad but embarrassed? Nah.
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Rodgers is saying this to get his remaining players up for it.
If we play as we can and don’t have any further Covid cases we should win, we can’t switch off mind as Leicester have shown.
Plus it’s away so unlike the Etihad it will have a crowd.
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He’s right though. Every year this period throws up quirks where some teams are way harder done by than others and every year those teams complain. The fact we hear about it every year doesn’t mean its any less true. And even more this year with Covid further unbalancing things.
I get the argument he exacerbated that with his selection against us, but I also think we need to take into account the challenge he faced with the number of absentees he already had. His good squad players and replacements were already required to be playing so the weakness of the side that would have resulted had he also then removed his still fit key players would have been considerable. Borderline unfair on the kids coming in to replace them. I think his options at that point were to pick a side that he was throwing to the wolves and be torn apart over it, or pick as good a side as he could put together and gamble.
But it’s also Brendan, and his #1 his priority is always positioning himself to get as much as the credit as possible and as little of the blame so is likely seeing another hiding on the cards and trying to preemept that by getting his excuse out there early.
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‘Patson Daka, Ricardo Pereira and Caglar Soyuncu have joined the Foxes’ list of absentees, while Ryan Bertrand is a doubt after sustaining a twisted knee during the warm-up prior to their Boxing Day defeat at Manchester City.
‘Harvey Barnes, Jonny Evans and Danny Ward are also unavailable, with Wesley Fofana and James Justin recovering from long-term injuries.
‘However, Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy will be ready after both were unused substitutes at Etihad Stadium.’
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I fully agree on this. I remember Liverpool having to play two games in two days at the start of 2017 (if I’m not mistaken), it was the only time that I remember seeing that. A gruelling 2:2 draw away to bloody Sunderland, Mane going off to AFCON, the team suffering a disastrous run of form over the next month. I felt pretty agitated before the game and incensed after it.
Personally, there’s always been something special about late December and New Year and Liverpool winning those games while my village was covered in snow, I couldn’t care less about the league position as long as the team were still in CL. The December of 2018 was also pretty special, I think the lads won 8/8 or 9/9, it was a great month. It took me a while to realise that players sometimes pay a heavy price for that, that the schedule might be a killer to them.
I think that the balance can be found, whether that means introducing five subs, scrapping two legged League Cup semifinals, FA Cup replays, all of this combined… That Christmas/New Year schedule can be stretched to include at least three days between matches for every club, no one can convince me otherwise.
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New years eve we beat City 1-0, then were required to play again on 02JAN and could only muster a draw with sunderland. We then didnt win again in the league until mid Feb and nearly fucked our qualification for the CL in the process, and even managed to squeeze in shit cup results against southampton and some lower league side in the FA cup (exeter?)
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Rodgers more or less goes easy on city and will do his best to try and beat us, I suppose he has not got over being sacked yet the deluded one.
He didn’t go easy on City. He’s without a lot of key first team players due to injury and is faced with little rest time in between games.
Why did he go so strong in midweek and we putting out 10 changes.
Hope Bodgers doesn’t play Hamza Choudhury… Dirty Bastard him…!
With Morton’s tackle seriously injuring Pereira… don’t want this knob anywhere near the game tonight…
Hope the lads ease off after going 6-0 up, get the 3points and get outta town without any further injuries
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Presumably because he wanted to win the league cup, which he is entitled to try to do.
If we put out 10 changes, then that in some way may reduce his willingness to field a weakened side himself because if they then go on to lose in that scenario there is little that works out well for him or the club. And, don’t forget, they are having a terrible run this season - the cup final or winning silverware will help overcome that.
There is also the issue that a number of his squad coming into the Leicester game were also injured. So who does he bring in ? Don’t forget we may have made 10 changes, but our squad is much deeper than that of Leicester. He probably didn’t count on losing 3+ players picking up injuries in that game, and was clearly hoping that several of those injured coming into last week would be back ahead of the City game - which in the case of Evans and Justin for example hasn’t happened.
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Yeah Evans was suggested as making the weekend but I assume it’s worse than first thought.
Secondary they were going for it, no doubt about it and why not they are struggling in the league and as most said anyone and his dog knew we were going play a weaker side.
Fact of the matter is their current first 11 is far weaker than a mixed up version of starters and reserves for us hence why in the second we blew them away.
As I said we need to be professional tonight because if we are we will win, if not we will struggle.
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This guy doesn’t try to tackle, he tries to foul and sometimes it ends up as tackle.
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I don’t think he has much choice at this rate
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Their game on Saturday against Norwich has been called off.
Vardy out for 8 weeks which clearly means that he’ll be ready to face us in 35 days.
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Wow, just… wow. This is worse than his ‘give me the tools’ justification. He didn’t name anyone specifically but he’s basically said his players are responsible for the result and what’s going on beyond that and that it’s got fuck all to do with him.
“Our players have to look at themselves in the mirror and prove they are good enough to be here,” said Rodgers.
A lot of players have to improve"
“In an attempt to inspire his players, Rodgers said he had brought the trophy into a team meeting earlier this week “so they could see what we went through last year and provide that motivation”.”
"
Rodgers, who has guided Leicester to successive fifth-placed finishes in the Premier League although they sit 10th this season, says complacency has crept in among his players and changes need to be made, saying the “time could be up” for some of his squad.
“Too many players think they are top players but are a long way off,” added Rodgers. "Some players may have achieved everything they can here.
“I watch training every day and for some it’s everything they could dream of, they’ve won the FA Cup - that might be it [for them], but it’s not for me.”
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Well he could take some responsibility and not throw his players under the bus.
Only a matter of time me thinks
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Leicester, of course, are a team that famously rallies behind their manager.