Rodgers: I’m certainly not going to trap the players

Joe Williams
Brendan Rodgers Leicester City

Brendan Rodgers does not want to “trap” his Leicester City players by telling them to target Champions League football.

Caglar Soyuncu’s first goal for Leicester and a late second by Jamie Vardy helped the Foxes remain in the Premier League top four with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Rodgers‘ team struggled to create chances at Selhurst Park, but showed the type of resolve and quality needed at crucial moments to move above Chelsea and back up to third in the table.

“The team is playing well, but we’re certainly not getting carried away and I’m certainly not going to trap the players with any sort of pressure by getting them to think of anything other than improving,” said Rodgers.

“They’ve been brilliant since I came in. They want to get better, they are hungry to learn, which is important. My senior players are first class.

“They understand that we are trying to create something here we can sustain. We’ve had a really good start, with some really good performances and different types of wins and we’re just constantly looking to improve.

“With 10 games to go, let’s see where we’re at.

“We’re comfortable in the fact that we’re challenging. I said at the beginning of the season when people were asking about European football: ‘We don’t want to limit ourselves.’

“There’s some incredible teams in this league and with quality but let’s work and systematically get better and improve and see where it takes us. There’s a long way to go.”