Brendan Rodgers Has Already Impressed at Leicester City

Intensity

Claude Puel’s entire reign as Leicester City manager was built around slow, methodical football. This translated into training, with many players reportedly unhappy with long training sessions, largely focussing on tactics. The end result was a struggle against weaker sides at home, with Leicester’s slow, patient football not enough to break teams down.

Brendan Rodgers has instantly changed this, according to numerous reports. Ben Chilwell spoke earlier this week about the high intensity of training sessions and the difference to those under Puel. This is a significant change. Puel’s approach alienated many of the club’s key players and led to apathy in the fan base.

Fan Connection

There has been a huge disconnect between Leicester City fans and the club over the last year. This generated a toxic environment at home matches, with every slight error jeered. Towards the end of his reign, Puel’s substitutions were often met with groans and negative chants. Many players spoke of how this affected their confidence. This low confidence, in turn, led to mistakes and unfortunately more fan reaction.

The atmosphere during Tuesday’s win against Brighton & Hove Albion was the most positive The King Power Stadium has seen this season. Mere hours after Rodgers’ appointment, there was a palpable excitement within the stands.

The King Power Stadium was a fortress during the title winning season and home form is essential if Leicester are to compete for European football. Brendan Rodgers’ appointment has already gone a long way to repairing the divide which Puel’s reign had created.

Squad Morale

Several of Leicester’s young talents have been linked with bigger clubs, including Harry Maguire and James Maddison. Most heavily linked has been full back Ben Chilwell, who is enjoying a sensational season.

It was significant, therefore, when Chilwell spoke about the excitement of the squad at the appointment, telling Sky Sports, “I’ve never seen it so energetic around here”. He also said that there is no reason for any player to want to leave, now that the club have “one of the biggest managers in the world”.

Retaining key players is something which Leicester have struggled to do in recent years. N’golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez have all left, but this trend may now be bucked.