Tag Archives: Brendan Rodgers

Iheanacho and Maddison have become the main players at Leicester City this season

Posted on by
Reply

Leicester City are the club that are simply here to stay and try and improve themselves by each passing season. Forget the incredible 2016 league title that no one saw coming. As amazing as it was the Foxes have always had a longer agenda which is not only to climb to the top of the mountain but to try and stay there too. This season is proving that Brendan Rodgers side have no plans of a descent.

Leicester are 3rd in the Premier League and hoping to qualify for the Champions League but they have also reached the final of the FA Cup. Now this is significant given that they are 90 minutes away from winning a trophy. The Foxes will face Chelsea one of the best in form sides in Europe but still there is a chance if they are able to click on the day. Leicester have never won the FA Cup and this will be their first final since 1969.

But there are a few players that have really driven the side this season. Jamie Vardy as ever will always get mentioned first, he is a bona fide Leicester legend and will certainly leave his mark on Premier League history when he retires. Vardy started the season in brilliant form but it has to be said that the striker has faded in the second half of the season. He is all about scoring goals and he hasn’t scored since February 13th when Leicester beat Liverpool 3-1. Indeed that has been his only league goal for the club this year so far.

Is club legend Vardy starting to struggle? it seems so but then again it would be wrong to write him off. Because of his fantastic start he is still ranked as the best fantasy player to have for the Foxes and has 65 points- that’s 9 more than the second best player and let’s remember that Vardy has still scored 13 goals and made 7 assists, far from a poor season, but certainly a poor run at this time.

So if Vardy is the captain of the ship who has been steering Leicester into elite waters? This seems mostly to have fallen upon two players. The first is James Maddison who has scored some very important goals this season and has played with total dedication in midfield. Maddison has earned 56 points and has probably scored the goals that Vardy should have been cleaning up with in previous seasons. He has assisted in 8 goals and been involved in 14 in total.

The real revelation though has been Kelechi Iheanacho. Here is a player that has promised much in the past but hasn’t always consistency delivered. The striker though seems to have picked up fantastic form the moment Vardy lost his and has been key to Leicester’s successes this season and still holding a top 4 position as we come to the end of April.

Iheanacho has scored 8 goals, though because it was one game after another it seems that he has scored double that. He has been a saving grace in many ways for the Foxes and one has to wonder if Leicester would have stayed the course without these two players performing to the level they have done so with Vardy’s drop of form?

Challenge the best EPL Fantasy Managers at www.fantasy-premier.com

Premier League Game of the Week: Leicester 1-3 Leeds United

Posted on by
Reply

One could have expected Leicester to have roared on in their surprise quest for a 2nd Premier League title in 5 years, after all the Foxes have done so well this season and came into this game having won 12 of their 20 so far. But Leeds United are the team that keep on asking questions after the school bell has sounded. The team that keep pressing when you feel lethargic and the team that are here to stay in the Premier League.

Former Leeds great Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink noted a month ago that he felt his former side would be relegated this season and one has to wonder how wrong can a player turned media pundit have been? Yes you may argue that hindsight is a wonderful thing, though when he claimed this Leeds had 23 points and we were not even at the half way stage of the season- unless Leeds were about to record the mother of all collapses there was next to no chance that Marcelo Bielsa’s team were going down this season. One almost feels that Leeds heard the words of their former player and are partly playing on a level just to prove him wrong.

That was the case in keeping as Leeds surprised Leicester at King Power Stadium by coming away with a 3-1 victory. By far the man of the match was the ultra talented Patrick Bamford. He scored one and assisted in the other two.

But it would be the home side who would take the lead through the impressive Harvey Barnes his precision shot was set up by James Maddison and Leicester looked well on their way to victory. However in the 15th minute and only three minutes after the Foxes took the lead Leeds were level. A great counter attacking move was finished off sweetly by Stuart Dallas who scored his 4th goal of the season. Indeed the equaliser had many similarities to Leicester’s opener.

The half ended 1-1 at no one could complain we had seen a fast paced and equal game and the score seemed to fit the duel we were watching.

Both sides came close in the 2nd half but the third goal of the game had to wait until the 70th minute. Raphinha set the ball up but this was all Bamford’s doing and he scored a peach of a goal, perhaps the best of the weekend to put Leeds into the lead. It didn’t feel like a surprise to see Marcelo Bielsa’s side take the lead but before the game Leicester were the favourites.

Perhaps the Foxes were missing Jamie Vardy and Ndidi two huge players for the club of course and Vardy had to miss the game because of his recent hernia operation although he hopes to be back this weekend.

As time ran out so did Leicester’s ideas and they were caught on the break- Leeds are one of the best sides in the Premier League for quick counter attacking- and Jack Harrison made it 3-1 after being set up by Bamford.

It was a fantastic win for Leeds who are now in 12th place with 29 points. They are at home to Everton next in midweek. As for Leicester they are still 4th and have 39 points and have a 4 point safety cushion to 5th. But manager Brendan Rodgers will be counting down the days until Vardy returns. Leicester’s next game is against Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Challenge the best EPL Fantasy Managers at www.fantasy-premier.com

 

 

Premier League Game of the Week: Leicester 2-2 Manchester United

Posted on by
Reply

For entertainment you can go to Las Vegas but at the weekend the King Power Stadium would run the city of sin very close. Leicester and Manchester United shared the points and the goals in a game blessed by attacking football which eventually ended 2-2.

For Manchester United their incredible away start to the season ended where they had won their previous six games in a row. United had taken the lead twice in the game only to be pegged back. But on the face of it getting a draw away to Leicester shouldn’t be seen as a bad result but United would have left the game thinking that they had just lose 2 points and gained one.

It was a game borne out of brilliant skill and a swashbuckling never say die attitude and it felt like a very English game of football. There were only 10 goal attempts overall, 5 for each side, so we have seen better games in that respect this season but this was still an intriguing duel that you couldn’t keep your eyes off of.

A cross into the area started the scoring, and a quite brilliant assist from Bruno Fernandes getting his toe to the ball which caught out Leicester’s defenders and pinged it to an unmarked Marcus Rashford set the striker up for an easy opportunity that he wasn’t going to miss and United led the game.

Manchester United’s lead would only last eight minutes though as Harvey Barnes expose De Gea in goal and lashed a beautiful shot thundering into the net from the edge of the area.

In the second half Antony Martial’s goal was ruled offside by VAR and then everything changed once Edinson Cavani was introduced in the 75th minute. It took the attacker just four minutes to set up United’s 2nd goal after his assist to Fernandes who scored his 10th goal of the season. But soon after it was 2-2 as Jamie Vardy came to the rescue and scored a rather simple goal that De Gea and United’s defence must have been concerned about.

In the end whilst United held the technical skill cards Leicester had the back bone not to give up and a draw seemed like a fair result.

These two teams, for some will be the pretenders to Liverpool’s title this season but both have shown they have a lot of quality and are able to put points and wins together. It would be no surprise this season if both clubs finished in the top 4.

Challenge the best EPL Fantasy Managers at www.fantasy-premier.comy

 

 

Premier League’s Game of the Week: Manchester City 2-5 Leicester City

Posted on by
Reply

If any of Manchester City and Leicester were going to win 5-2 then 99% of the chance it would be Manchester City, at the weekend we saw the rule to that exception.

In a stunning result Leicester who have started the season in style put 5 goals past Pep Guardiola’s City side, champions in two out of the last 3 seasons as they sailed to a stunning 5-2 victory at the Etihad.

And no one could have seen it coming. In City’s first game of the season they made light work of Wolves beating them 3-1. Whilst Leicester had started well they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup in midweek against Arsenal, though Brendan Rodgers was able to leave a few regulars out.

As for the game it looked over almost as soon as it had started as Riyad Mahrez the former Leicester player, who else? gave City the lead. This was now going to go to script surely and City were supposed to wipe the floor with the unbeaten Leicester, but that didn’t happen.

Leicester made their presence felt and James Maddison was all over the pitch, there was a sense that this game wasn’t all going to be about City. Then before half time Leicester were awarded a penalty and Jamie Vardy scored his 3rd goal of the season. The half ended 1-1, and still even with 45 minutes gone nobody could have predicted the outcome.

It was early in the second half that the change happened. Vardy scored again a brilliant flick that put the Foxes in the lead, and then just five minutes later it was another penalty, again for Leicester and in the space of 21 minutes Vardy- the top goalscorer last season had completed his hat trick.

At 3-1 the game wasn’t over and yet it felt it like the home side despite their quality had been winded. The game rolled on and City tried but the minutes ticked away and then the brilliant James Maddison smashed a long range shot right into the back of the net, it was 4-1, the game was over for City, but the game wasn’t over.

New signing for Guardiola’s team Nathan Ake got a goal back to make it 4-2 near the end, could there have possibly been a crazy comeback? In the Premier League you can really never say never but that wasn’t happening today.

A third penalty confirmed that when Youri Tielemans converted, the score was now 5-2. It was an incredible result and even though there were 3 penalties there was nothing controversial about the decisions, no one complained everyone accepted even Guardiola had to, his team had been well and truly beaten and he was right to be annoyed with his defenders after the game, basic errors at this level left viewers stunned.

With the win Leicester the 2016 champions are top of the league once more, they have scored an incredible 12 goals. For City this feels like deja vue in that they started slow last season and dropped too many points as their rivals Liverpool started strongly, the gap is already six points between City and the champions.

Challenge the best EPL Fantasy Managers at www.fantasy-premier.com

 

 

 

Liverpool aren’t the only losers if Premier League is null and void- spare a thought for Leicester

Posted on by
Reply

One would have thought that we had stepped into another dimension trying to confirm that in 2016 Leicester had actually won the Premier League, but win it they did. That isn’t to take anything away from Claudio Ranieri’s team, it was fully deserved but still even in March of that season Leicester had their doubters that they would actually push on and win it.

It was a magnificent victory from a team that had started at odds of 5000/1 to win the league title at the beginning of the season. Indeed because of them and the fact that some bookmakers were stung by that price, teams of equal standing are now quoted to win the league at around 1000/1 when a new one kicks off.

Leicester had reached their Everest and it was at this point that we could fully accept their achievements. The next part of the script was to see the fall of the team. After all surely they couldn’t hang on to the players that won them the league, maybe the manager would leave too, and what Leicester fan would mind, they achieved the unthinkable just be glad you witnessed it.

What followed over the years didn’t quite run out like that. Sure the club lost quality in the likes of N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez both going to former champions Chelsea and Manchester City respectively, indeed Mahrez would win another league with City. In the end Ranieri didn’t leave, instead with unrealistic expectations to do well in the following season he was sacked. Although it was clear that the Italian had maybe lost focus, he was being asked to try and win another lottery after just doing so, perhaps the full motivation wasn’t there.

Anyhow Leicester were supposed to just become a staple Premier League team, maybe finishing in the top 10 from time to time. But this season has been a revelation for them and it all started at the back end of last season when Brendan Rodgers left Celtic to join up with them. Leicester finished the season strong, maybe that meant they could start this season in similar fashion?

The team went for it and challenged both Liverpool and Manchester City, easily the two best teams in the league. For a time being 3rd wasn’t good enough and they passed champions City despite Liverpool being so far out in front in the lead. The season has caught up with them, and they have lost some games but with 10 games to go they are in 3rd place.

8 points separates them from 5th and they are well on course to qualify for the Champions League, though Chelsea in 4th and Manchester United in 5th have been eating into their lead. Still one couldn’t see the Foxes giving up a Champions League place at this stage. Now playing in the Champions League when they won the league was as ever expected and they did well in their debut time there reaching the knock out stages before narrowly exiting to Atletico Madrid by the odd goal.

But there seems something more fulfilling to return to the Champions League through sheer Premier League consistency. It would also say a lot about Rodgers- maybe some thought the ex Liverpool manager was spent after deciding to manage Celtic in the Scottish Premier League. But Rodgers has made a huge statement with Leicester. It is sure that his future lies away from the King Power Stadium and his achievements should land him a big job.

However despite all of the hard work, Leicester could miss out on playing in the Champions League if the league is declared null and void. That would mean that this league didn’t in fact happen. So no Champions League qualifiers needed because we would just use the four teams that qualified from last season, a reset button if you like.

Now we can have sympathy if this happens to Liverpool who have in theory won the league and could miss out. The big difference though is that we know Liverpool will bounce back, that remains uncertain that Leicester will, and playing in the Champions League for next season could have been their last in some time, who knows?

But it is important to remember that if the league is null and void it isn’t just Liverpool missing out, Leicester’s hearts would surely be broken too.

How well do you know English football? Want to challenge the best English Fantasy Managers? Play www.epl-fantasy.com now.

Leicester and Chelsea the Premier League pretenders play out match that summarises their seasons

Posted on by
Reply

It was interesting to see Leicester and Chelsea come together at the weekend. Mostly because the teams have been so similar in the Premier League, the teams that could have, but aren’t quite there yet, that was the feeling of a game that felt like 3rd place at the World Cup, but was never going to be played like a friendly.

Both clubs are looking to qualify for the Champions League without challenge- well that is the idea anyway, which is working out much better for Leicester. The Foxes have an 8 point gap to 4th place Chelsea and Leicester will not mind that Manchester City have passed them in the league and could go 5 points clear of them if they beat Tottenham on Sunday, City the current champions are not the threat to Leicester.

This game which finished in an entertaining 2-2 draw pretty much confirmed that Leicester will be playing Champions League football next season and that is quite a magnificent achievement for the team. True they won the league in 2016, but they were supposed to drop off after that and never be heard of again. But under Brendan Rodgers the team have felt alive again and have become a very difficult side to beat, especially at home. A surprise loss to Southampton and a 4-0 defeat against Liverpool are the clubs only blemishes at King Power Stadium.

A superb first half of the season means that Leicester have a 13 point safety net not to finish in a Champions League place. If Tottenham beat Manchester City on Sunday evening that would still be a 12 point safety net. Leicester look good for it and with just 13 games remaining they should be fine.

As for Chelsea they have 41 points and have evidently slowed down, almost to a halt in recent weeks. Just one victory has been achieved by Frank Lampard’s side in the last five games where they have earned 6 points from 15. The only saving grace is that the clubs that were supposed to have caught them up have found plenty of banana skins along the way. Both Manchester United and Tottenham are finding it hard to patch wins together, though as said above if Tottenham beat Manchester City they would go four points behind Chelsea and surely at that point the Blues would start to feel the pressure. As it stands Sheffield United are in 5th and are five points behind, but not many people will believe that the Blades can push on from there.

The game played between Leicester and Chelsea was a good one. Chelsea took the lead, Leicester came back and took the lead before a Chelsea equaliser through Antonio Rudiger who had scored the clubs first goal settled the game. It was an encounter that on reflection of both sides taking a point felt like much ado about nothing. But these two teams are littered with quality and could well make inner and deeper roads next season if they can keep their best assets and add to them. For now they are the sports teams who will have to settle for nothing this season, apart from Champions League qualification, which at this time only looks guaranteed for one of them.

How well do you know English football? Want to challenge the best English Fantasy Managers? Play www.epl-fantasy.com now.

Can Leicester City finish above Manchester City this season?

Posted on by
Reply

Just last month, all the focus seemed to be on whether Leicester and Manchester City could hang onto the coattails of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the title race.

Fast forward to the present day and it seems much has changed. Thanks to a Boxing Day defeat at home to Liverpool – and the manner of how The Reds dominated in that 4-0 thrashing – The Foxes’ focus now must be on keeping their place in the Premier League’s top four.

Continue reading →

Leicester have come up short against the better teams but it has still been a brilliant season so far for them

Posted on by
Reply

Leicester have had a superb season but recent results have certainly brought the club back down to earth, but this shouldn’t mask just how strong the side has been so far this season.

The recent 4-0 whitewash against Liverpool confirmed what most people already knew, Leicester are not about to win their second title in four years. As good as the club have been this season they have clear limitations. They have lost to Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool as an example. But the beauty of the club is that they are plugging away and getting the right results against everyone else.

Currently the club are in 2nd place, ahead of champions Manchester City and that should tell you everything about them. They are not just satisfied with the league either and have made in roads on the domestic cup namely the Carabao Cup where they have reached the semi-finals. The Foxes will play Aston Villa in a 2 leg semi final and it isn’t unrealistic to think that they could reach the final where they would meet either Manchester City or Manchester United. So whilst the season hasn’t been picture perfect for the club most teams would give their right arms to be at the level that Leicester are at.

It has been quite an achievement and Brendan Rodgers coming into the club last spring has worked wonders. If anything he has reinstated the belief that Leicester’s 2016 Premier League title was not a one off. Sure in terms of actually winning it again one could see it like that. But he has insured that the club are remembered not for just one amazing season. The clear objective now is to return to the Champions League which would be a magnificent achievement and the club have a 10 point safety net in doing so. That looks good but we must remember that we are only at the half way stage of the season campaign and there will be so many twists and turns to come.

Recent form is not good for Leicester too- True losing to Manchester City and Liverpool is no shame but they have also drawn 1-1 at home to Norwich in between those games. The Foxes will play West Ham at the weekend and lose that and this could be the start of the slippery slide that many have suggested could happen. After that game Leicester will play Newcastle another away game before venturing into the FA Cup.

There is all to play for then and it would be unfortunate if Leicester blew a top 4 place now.

How well do you know English football? Want to challenge the best English Fantasy Managers? Play www.epl-fantasy.com now.

Jamie Vardy has ensured his legend status at Leicester City after Arsenal are beaten

Posted on by
Reply

At the time of writing Leicester are sitting in 2nd place in the Premier League and there are now genuine memories, hopes and wishes of what the club did in season 2015/16 and that is winning the Premier League. The clubs win over Arsenal by 2-0 just reinforced that fact that the Foxes are back.

Leading that title chase is Jamie Vardy. The striker breathes and bleeds Leicester and has been a constant within the teams most successful era of their history, simply put he installs belief, the will to win and most importantly he just keeps on scoring goals.

Vardy opened the game up against Arsenal with just 15 minutes left to play in a match that was terrifically entertaining and end to end stuff but ultimately one that looked like Brendan Rodgers side would end up dropping 2 points at home. It was headed for 0-0 until Vardy’s great goal which crushed Arsenal and then Leicester went onto score a 2nd moments later through the impressive James Maddison.

Vardy’s rise to top goalscorer in the Premier League has been stunning given that he was playing non-league football at the beginning of this decade with Halifax Town. But he is Leicester through and through. He has 11 goals already this season from 12 games and is on course to beat his best Premier League total of 24 goals when the Foxes won the league.

At the weekend he scored his 111th goal for the club in the league and there looks like no signs of the player slowing down. What is remarkable is that his career in the top flight did not kick off until he was 28 and it would felt to him that his football career had simply passed him by. He is an exception to the rule that you can still make it at the very top. One can count on your hand the amount of players that have risen from the ashes to perform well when they have gotten older, Ian Wright would be one of those players too.

Perhaps the British media have given the striker scant praise over the years, and it’s true that he isn’t the most prolific striker in England or Europe for that matter. But he does score goals, and does get himself in the right places in the area- he’s simply always there and always a threat.

Vardy is 32 but at this rate he has another 2-3 seasons with Leicester to keep on proving how important he has been at the club. Surely whatever happens now he has his foothold in the history of the club and also a staute will be awaiting him at King Power Stadium. How long can Leicester keep pushing Liverpool and Manchester City is anyone’s guess.

They remain the league’s outsiders and you get the feeling that Vardy and Leicester will love it that way.

Play the newest EPL fantasy game here https://epl-fantasy.com

 

Can Leicester win another Premier League title?

Posted on by
Reply

No one associated with football will ever forget the Premier League season of 2015/16 when Leicester City at odds of 5000/1 won the Premier League. It was the biggest shock to grace the league since becoming the Premier League in the 1992/93 season. That season the usual suspects were supposed to be winning it, namely Chelsea who were the current champions and the ever present Manchester City. Tottenham also had their say, but it was Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester side who deservedly won it and in stunning fashion.

When the Foxes won the league, one suspected that was it, some players would leave, some would stay, some would write biographies and so on. But Leicester’s moment in the gleaming success of the football elite would be over. They had had their time, what a time it was of course, and see you later, perhaps in another 100 years time. But 3 years on from that success the team are shaping up to have another successful league campaign.

This time it is under former Liverpool and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, who himself came very close to winning the league with Liverpool in the 2013/14 season. The Reds had an infamous 5 point lead with just three games left to play that season. Rodgers has been around and proved to be a very capable manager and since taking over at Leicester in March has turned the clubs fortunes around, more importantly he has made the players believe once again that the club were champions very recently and should be proud of that fact.

Rodgers record since taking over reads like this; He has a 54.5% win rate and from 22 games managed he has earned the club 41 points. On average then that means that in 38 games he would have pulled in around 70 points. That is probably Champions League football.

But here’s the thing, can Leicester win the league again and really put everyone on their backsides? The answer is most probably no, because they have the mighty two teams to challenge who are also in front of them in the shape of Liverpool and Manchester City. Liverpool are 8 points in front and City the current champions are 2 points in front of them. But then again all it takes is for Liverpool to have a bad run and Leicester simply to keep consistency. It would still be very difficult, but the Foxes do have a great chance to return to the Champions League, if they finish in the top four surely that is rubber stamping what has been a fantastic era for the club.

Their recent 9-0 thrashing of Southampton will be rightly remembered for some time and it will be fascinating to see how far the club can go and how many points they can accumulate at least from now up until the Christmas period. If anything it is brilliant to see the club right up there, determined not to simply fade away on the horizon after their fantastic league win. Rodgers is proving to be a very special manager indeed.

Play the newest EPL fantasy game here https://epl-fantasy.com