By Luke Williamson
Brendan Rodgers’ future at Leicester City Football Club has come under question, following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
Rodgers took over from Claude Puel at the King Power Stadium in February 2019 and took the Foxes back into European football in his first full season in charge.
This season has been a struggle with The Foxes floundering in 12th place in the Premier League – compared to third after 12 games of the last campaign and second at the same stage a season before.
City are underperforming in a number of categories – winning four fewer games meaning the Foxes have picked up nine points fewer than at this stage last term, and 11 compared to two seasons prior.
Foxes fan Sam Bettany, a digital marketing graduate from UCFB, said: “Rodgers has struggled with making the next step with this group of players.
“Yes, we have had some injuries to contend with but it feels like we’re changing our system too often and it feels like our identity has been lost this season.”
Goals have been hard to come by, too, with the usually potent strike force only finding the net 16 times so far this season, compared with 24 last season and 29 the one before that, with the style of play again the root of the concern for supporters.
Rizwan Narma, another City fan, added: “Rodgers has tinkered with the team too many times.
“Why [James] Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho aren’t starting every game is absolutely beyond me, especially considering our lack of creativity and the fact that Kelechi’s goals and assists have carried us the whole of 2021.
“Rodgers has been too stubborn in his tactics and set up – when something isn’t working, he rarely changes it or leaves it too late.”
Defensively, the side has looked shaky at the back, with the loss of Wesley Fofana before the season started and new signing Jannik Vestergaard not living up to his £15 million price tag.
The side has conceded six more goals at this stage compared to last season – 15 to 21 – and considerably more than the eight they conceded after 12 games in 2019/20.
Tom Hoegger, content creator for Leicester Fan TV, added: “Zonal marking this year just has not worked at all.
“The loss of Wesley Fofana in the last pre-season game to a broken leg has been a massive loss to the defence.”
When Solskjaer lost his job at the helm at Old Trafford, Rodgers’ name reportedly found its way onto United’s shortlist.
Sam added: “It doesn’t surprise me, it’s only right he gets linked with a job as big as Manchester United.
“He came back into the Premier League and proved to a lot of people that he is one of the best coaches in the country.
“I think fans would be disappointed if he was to make the switch, but I don’t think he is irreplaceable because our owners are that ambitious that I would trust them to work quickly and replace Rodgers with a coach of similar quality.”
Rodgers seems to be staying at Leicester for the time-being, ahead of tonight’s Europa League game against Legia Warsaw at the King Power Stadium.
