Four ton favours the brave

BREN’S MILESTONE

BRENDAN RODGERS has told his Leicester players to stay calm in the wake of their recent slump.

The Foxes are in danger of dropping out of the top four after two points from three matches, which has left their Champions League hopes under threat.

Rodgers’ side were dumped out of the FA

Cup by Chelsea in the quarter-finals last Sunday and lost 2-1 at Everton in midweek, which Ayoze Perez (inset)

found tough to take.

But he refuses to panic and is using all his experience ahead of his 400th league game as a boss when Crystal Palace visit today.

The Irishman, 47, said: “Staying calm is important. Experience tells you not to be too emotional and to go back to basics.

“There is no magic dust to sprinkle. We are a fraction away from where we want to be.

“It is natural a young squad may have a sense of fear or confidence drops but if we had said at the start of the season you are going to be third with six games to go, I would have been so happy.

“We have been first class until this point. We are still in a brilliant position, I wouldn’t swap it. “We need to make sure we get our organisation right and the players don’t think they are going to be judged since the lockdown.

“The challenge is to work even harder and have that sense of perspective.”

Leicester’s poor run has seen the chasing pack close in but Rodgers refuses to look too far ahead and says the locals could do with a lift after the city’s new lockdown this week.

He added: “It wasn’t nice, especially when the rest of the country are looking forward to returning to some sort of normality.

“We have an opportunity to make people’s lives better by getting good results and performances. We will look to do that.”