Rodgers hails his 'outstanding' Leicester players for Spurs rout

Football
12 Feb 2023 • 8:13 AM MYT
Tribal Football
Tribal Football

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Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers was full of pride after their rout of Tottenham on Saturday.

The Foxes triumphed 4-1 at King Power Stadium, courtesy of Papy Mendy's maiden City goal and further strikes from James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho and Harvey Barnes. Spurs had earlier taken the lead through Rodrigo Bentancur.

The guys were absolutely outstanding," Rodgers told LCFC TV. It was brave to press a team who have so much quality and so much threat. Some of our football was outstanding today. We scored four very good goals.

Papy Mendy scoring for the first time it was a great corner actually. Tim (Timothy Castagne) was unlucky, he's flicked it on and they've defended it at the back post. It's come out and it's a wonderful strike. He's got quality, Papy. But obviously he prefers to pass rather than shoot. It's a wonderful finish.

It was unfortunate for us [to go behind], but our response has been excellent and we stayed calm in the game. Especially once we got the first goal, we really pushed on from there. It was a great afternoon for all the supporters and a very good performance."

Two goals in as many first-half minutes turned the game on its head following the visitors' early opener and City's manager was full of praise for the way his side approached the game, especially after going behind.

The 50-year-old explained: It came from the press and the players showing that courage to step in and be aggressive and win the first balls. Then once on the regain, making the right passes.

Wout [Faes] steps in really well, wins the first ball and goes to Kel and then he squares it for Madders, and he finishes it. Once we won it back again, big Harry [Souttar] makes a great pass for Kel to step in and finish.

We had other chances in the game, we're obviously unfortunate with Barnesy's goal to be disallowed for offside, but he got what he deserved as well. He had a specific role tactically in the game today and I thought he was outstanding.

The fourth goal had lots of passes and we worked the shape, creating the space to get his goal. We controlled it. When you're 3-1 up, you've got to still play and work the space and that was the only criticism. But the guys that came into the game made a good impact for us.

We defended well. The whole backline in particular, because they were up against three world-class players I believe, in Son [Heung-min], [Harry] Kane and [Dejan] Kulusevski, who is a big talent as well. I thought they managed it very well, with good concentration.

If we play to that level, and play that football, with that intensity, then we can match anyone. Overall, it was an outstanding team performance."