Polish winger hails Rodgers’ influence ahead of Europa clash

FORMER Leicester City winger Bartosz Kapustka has hailed Brendan Rodgers as the best coach he has played under, writes Luke Pawley.

The duo only worked together for 18 months at Leicester City but Kapustka left with “great respect” for Rodgers.

The Polish winger, left, returned to his homeland last year to join Legia Warsaw, who host City in the Europa League on Thursday.

While Kapustka did not feature for Leicester in the Premier League, he forged a good relationship with Rodgers who taught him a lot in training. When I was recovering from a serious injury, like I am going through now, I was fortunate enough to run into Brendan Rodgers,” Kapustka told legia.net.

“I believe that he is a great specialist, I think I can safely say that the best coach I have dealt with.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t play for him but I am very happy with the time I spent with him.

“The coach also helped me with many things in training. I have great respect for him.

“I was very happy with the end of my period in Leicester.”

Kapustka is currently sidelined after picking up an injury in a Champions League qualifier over the summer, but he is looking forward to seeing some of his old team-mates later in the week.

He said: “We live in such times that various comments or short replies to posts on social media are common.

“I’m in contact with several players from Leicester but it is not constant.

“Before the match (on Thursday), I will try to meet up with them in the hotel.”

Legia Warsaw will be looking to cause an upset in the Europa League and Kapustka believes they are certainly capable of doing so. “Nothing can be certain,” he said. “I think that Czesław Michniewicz is a coach who can really prepare the teams very well for theoretically stronger rivals.

“The English are certainly the favourites for the competition, Napoli is also on paper, in the group, a better team.

“But everything is always verified on the pitch, you have to back yourself. I believe Legia will bring more than one surprise in the Europa League.”