Brendan Rodgers often makes excuses regarding this and that when he gets a question and he has also said that Leicester are above their weight, but harsly observed, he has in his tool box the ability to win away against Man City.
He has also been able to win a Community Shield against Pep, but still turns down the ability of his squad and his team as he moves forward in a spiral of negativity. It might be said to protect someone, but still not ideal getting the full backing of owners and fanbase.
This summer of course massive additions have been done at The Etihad, but also seeing great talent moved on. Reheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are major moves out of the club as well as saying goodbye to long serving midfielder Fernandinho.
The money gained from those sales are well invested in other players such as Erling Braut Haaland, Manuel Akinji, Sergio Gomez and Kalvin Phillips. The total of moves in and out is almost balanced with a minor net gain.
Over the years we have seen Pep Guardiola doing the same build at Barcelona and Bayern Munich getting great success, but at some point even he could see a defeat against other teams as he counts on fewer players to build that fantastic blend on the field.
Brendan Rodgers has build something else as he has added quantity to a squad instead of more quality and not been able to make those harsh decissions to move on players he do not need and instead just filled the training ground with more flowers to have more to select from.
We have seen Leicester managers in the past getting fantastic results using the same formula as Pep Guardiola, so why are Brendan Rodgers using a different plan, and not really getting the results needed. To play two games a week is not a problem for a player that has the physique and energy to do so, and getting that in place you need to play. Injuries often occure when you are not used to play much or get into a wrong rythm. Resting can be usefull at some point, but not as a habit to solve your injury problems as the opposite is the best medicine for that.
Looking at the squad of Man City you have a core of first team players on the count of 19. The total number of first teamers are 23 and of them, Cole Palmer and Rico Lewis do not count as they are under the age of 21. Brendan Rodgers do have 26 players at present, when only 25 can be in a squad.
We do believe Pep is having the correct answers in his approach to football and for anyone else believing in other ideas, you can of course try it out and end up with results that does not add up.
Leicester players at the club to be counted;
Goalkeepers: Ward, Iversen, Smithies (3)
Defenders: Justin, Castagne, Faes, Pereira, Vestergaard, Brunt, Amartey, Bertrand, Soyuncu, Evans (10)
Midfield: Mendy, Praet, Ndidi, Soumare, Tielemans, Maddison, Albrighton, Dewsbury-Hall (8)
Forwards: Vardy, Perez, Barnes, Daka, Iheanacho (5)
Not counting: Thomas
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