CITY SET TO RING CHANGES FOR PALACE

Rodgers looks to protect players

LEICESTER City played with the authority of a big six team even if they don’t have the budget to match, manager Brendan Rodgers said.

City drew 2-2 with Manchester United on Boxing Day, twice coming from behind to make it 10 points from a possible 15 against the traditional Premier League heavyweights this season. But not only did they halt United’s winning away run at 10 games, they did it with style, playing with a “personality” that the biggest teams have and the lesser teams don’t. “We want to be competitive,” said Rodgers, left.

“The definition of the top six is based around the financial side, and of course we’re not in that. “But if we can be competitive in a football aspect, that’s important.

“Today, against a top team that have shown how good they are away from home, we were competitive. What pleased me today was the authority.

“We’re improving and developing and when you play against the huge clubs, Liverpool, Man United, Man City, they have that personality that sometimes a lesser club doesn’t have.

“But I thought we played with that personality and authority in the game.

“We’re nowhere near in terms of a budget and resources but from a football perspective, we were competitive and that’s something that was nice to see.”

Helping City to show that authority was Youri Tielemans, who was, in the first half, the most influential player on the pitch, and was picked out by Rodgers.

“I thought he was outstanding today,” said the manager. “He had that confidence and played with a real authority.

“He was really competitive without the ball, pressing, winning tackles, being strong, and then his movement to take and pass the ball was exceptional.”

All in all, that led to a performance that Rodgers felt was deserving of a point, even if opposite number Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believed his side should have won.

“I thought it was the very least we deserved,” Rodgers said.

“I thought it was a really good game, with two attacking teams.

“We were unfortunate to go behind, but got an equaliser that we deserved.

“I thought through the game we showed real quality and we showed we can really compete at the level against a team that had won every game away from home.

“You can see in the quality of their movement and speed how dangerous they are.

“We were disappointed with the second goal.

“We’ll analyse that and there’s a coaching element of that where we can be better.

“We showed that spirit and mentality that is growing in this team, and the confidence that they can come back.

“We’ve got good fitness levels so we can go to the end. We thoroughly deserved something from the game.”