Don’t ignore ‘broken’ players, Rodgers tells City’s scouting team

CITY NEWS BOSS SAYS CLUB OFFERS RIGHT ENVIRONMENT TO REINVIGORATE A TALENTED STAR’S CAREER

BRENDAN Rodgers has told the Leicester City scouting team not to overlook “broken” players in their search for transfer targets.

With the rise in the use of analytics and data to unearth talents around the world, a player’s statistics have never been more important.

But Rodgers believes numbers are not the be all and end all, and wants the recruitment staff to consider talents who shone brightly, but who then may have lost their way.

The City boss believes he can offer the right environment to reinvigorate the player and get the best out of them.

City’s newest signing Cengiz Under is a strong example of such a player, with the Turkey international beginning well in Italy only to fade.

He started just 10 Serie A games last season, while he has registered just three goals and three assists in all competitions since the start of 2019.

Rodgers, left, said: “I’ve always done that through my career.

“Sometimes now in the modern game it’s a lot about stats and analysis and sometimes there are players out there who may not be high on statistics at this very moment when you analyse them, but they have been broken in some way or it’s just not quite worked out.

“I’ve always said to my recruitment team not to bypass the players who were talents and for some reason aren’t quite at the level at this moment.

“I remember Wayne Routledge at Swansea – he was a really talented young player, made a couple of big moves, to Tottenham and Newcastle United, and at Newcastle it wasn’t quite working out for him, but I knew he was a talent.

“We took him in and throughout his career there and in my time he was absolutely amazing.

“I’ve tried to look at players like that where it’s not happening for them, so can we bring them into the environment.

“Can we give them an aspiration to get back on track and give them an ambition to be on the right track again?

“You have to want to work, that’s what’s key. You cannot just be a talent, you have to be a working talent.”

Asked how he goes about drawing talent out of players again, Rodgers replied: “It’s a bit of everything.

“I like to think we have a positive environment and we look to develop players on their strengths, as opposed to what they can’t do.

“If players can know they come in to get better every day, 99 per cent of them want to get better.

“It’s them genuinely wanting to work and improve, in an environment where you will be coached and understood, then hopefully they can perform to the level we would want.”