Rodgers defends rotation policy after Leicester’s draw
BRENDAN Rodgers defended his decision to rotate key players after Leicester were held to a 1-1 draw by Crystal Palace yesterday.
James Maddison was not even part of the squad at Selhurst Park, while top goalscorer Jamie Vardy was only on the bench, with seven changes made to the team which drew 2-2 with Manchester United on Boxing Day.
In the end, the Foxes were indebted to Harvey Barnes, one of four players who started 48 hours earlier, to salvage a point with his fine 83rd-minute equaliser cancelling out Wilfried Zaha’s opener early in the second half.
While Leicester have moved up to second, the general feeling at full-time was they had let points slip in the race to catch leaders Liverpool, who visit Newcastle tomorrow.
“James Maddison wasn’t fit so he couldn’t travel and Vards is managing an issue so to start him was always going to be really difficult, but we tried to get him into the game for half-an-hour,” Rodgers explained.
“If we felt we could play all the same players all the time and the team that played at the weekend, we would have done, but I have to trust the players. The performance today should have been enough to get the result and win. It didn’t and
we accept that. If there is any blame, it is certainly on me because I pick the team.”
Kelechi Iheanacho was the man tasked with replacing Vardy and he squandered the chance to open the scoring in the 19th minute when he had a penalty saved by Vicente Guaita. He also headed over from close range on the half-hour mark to cap a frustrating afternoon for the ex-Manchester City striker in the capital.
Rodgers added: “Kelechi is a boy that gives everything in training and he doesn’t get too many opportunities, but he has shown in the Europa League where he has performed really well for us.
“Ironically, yesterday because Jamie wasn’t starting, him and Ayoze Perez were the two designated penalty takers and Kelechi got five out of five penalties.”