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| Brendan Rogers, Manager of Leicester City looks on during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Leicester City at St. James Park on April 17, 2022 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. |
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers cited Everton’s Premier League plight today as evidence that money alone cannot bring success.
The Foxes head for Goodison Park this evening to face a club engaged in a desperate fight for top-flight survival despite investing in excess of £560 million in new players over the last six years or so.
Asked what had gone wrong on the blue half of Merseyside, former Liverpool boss Rodgers said: “It’s well-documented there’s a lot of money been spent — a lot of money — but if it doesn’t all join up, then it doesn’t really matter.
They’ve got good players who go out and work hard and make it difficult and they’ve got players with quality, so it’s probably frustrating for the supporters, I’m sure, because it’s a huge club and the investment’s been huge and they probably wanted better.
There was obviously a spell on Merseyside at the time I was there when Roberto Martinez was doing really well with them, so it’s tough.
I think Frank Lampard will do really well as a manager. He’s gone in there with a really good team of coaches, but of course that overall vision of the club is so, so important.
The Toffees sit just three points clear of the drop zone, although with games in hand on the teams below them, despite a priceless 1-0 victory over Manchester United last time out.
By contrast, Leicester lie ninth, 12 points adrift of seventh-placed West Ham, but having played three games fewer, and are through to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League.
However, they suffered a setback on Sunday when, after dominating for long periods despite making eight changes to the side which had beaten PSV Eindhoven in Holland three days earlier, they were beaten 2-1 at Newcastle thanks to Bruno Guimaraes’ 95th-minute winner.
A philosophical Rodgers said: Of course when you lose, there is that disappointment. But for me it’s clear, the analysis of the game. For large periods, we were in control, we were very good.
You’ve just got to manage the game to see it out, and that’s cost us a few times this season. It’s a case of reinforcing a lot of our good moments and reflecting and learning and hopefully go on to win the next game.
It’s a credit to the players that this is the first game we’ve lost coming off a European match, so it shows the mentality and resilience in the squad. I’ll take that on to the Everton match on Wednesday.
Lampard said ahead of the game: In terms of three points and focusing on what’s ahead, the mood’s confident and the lads are working very well.
There’s no substitute for [results], but it’s generally been a very positive place since I’ve been here. I say that with real honesty, because sometimes the feeling outside isn’t so positive, and off the back of results, and I understand that.
You get tested with that. Sometimes it can have an effect on the atmosphere, [but] it hasn’t so much. We’ve always bounced back in terms of trying next game, trying next game. It will be more important than anything to have that mentality for the next eight games.
We don’t need to win eight games to stay in this league — we need to get a certain amount of points, and we need to stay very resilient in that period.
Leicester, Liverpool, Chelsea, Leicester is a tough run, but at the same time I think that at this stage of the season, it’s very easy to overanalyse the opposition in those terms.
We must focus on ourselves, go game by game. We’d like to try to continue the good form we’ve had at Goodison and the good results. Just tackle it head on. We have injured players back fit so let’s hope we can keep that.
Yerry Mina and Donny Van De Beek are available to make their comebacks on Wednesday after injuries.