Maddison built for a World Cup, says Foxes boss Rodgers

LEICESTER manager Brendan Rodgers insists James Maddison is “built for a World Cup” as the playmaker starred in their 2-0 victory at

Everton.

The 25-year-old has not been picked by England since October 2019 but is still holding out hope of making the final cut for Gareth Southgate’s squad for the tournament in Qatar, which starts in 14 days.

He provided the assists for Youri Tielemans’s brilliant volleyed opener late in the first half and then teed up Harvey Barnes for an 86th-minute second to clinch a third victory in four matches to lift them out of the relegation zone.

“This boy is built for a World Cup, this boy can go into a 150,000 stadium, it doesn’t matter,” said Rodgers.

“He can take the ball, he’ll pass the ball, he’ll be creative. That’s his stage. That’s why I keep getting asked questions about him.

“He’s one of the best players in the Premier

League, who happens to be English. He’s such a brilliant guy who has matured.

“Don’t get me wrong – I left this player out of an FA Cup final because of certain aspects of his game I didn’t like – but he’s always responded.”

Victory moved the Foxes above Everton on goal difference and into 13th in the table.

The visitors played the better football and had more control and, crucially, were more clinical in front of goal.

“When you come to Goodison Park you know you’re going to be in for a game but we played with a real calmness and quality,” added Rodgers.

Everton boss Frank Lampard, whose side have now lost four of the last six, are just two points above the bottom three.

Asked for his verdict on the performance, Lampard pointed to two opportunities created by his side as pivotal to the outcome of the game – Alex Iwobi shooting narrowly wide from inside the box in the opening minutes and Dominic Calvert-Lewin firing a shot at the legs of Danny Ward when played through by Iwobi.

“We missed some big chances – probably two of the better chances of the game – at critical moments early in the game and then early in the second half,” Lampard way quoted as saying by liverpoolecho.com.

“Possession was 50-50ish, we tried to get after them a little bit when we had moments of good pressure, and [there were] moments when we were a little bit off it in that sense but against a good footballing team.

“I didn’t want to give them a sense of coming here and controlling us and pushing us back so I thought we competed in lots of ways.

“In the end we came up against a very good team with good individuals in good form who showed their quality at the top end of the pitch and we couldn’t find that.”

There was more bad news for Lampard with striker Calvert-Lewin, another World Cup hopeful, and midfielders Idrissa Gana Gueye and Amadou Onana all forced off with injuries.

“Gana (has injured) the top of his quad, he’ll have a scan on Monday. Dominic is a hamstring, scan on Monday, and Onana is an ankle, scan on Monday,” said Lampard.

“They feel like they’re the lighter end of muscular injuries. Gana did his halfway through the first half – he was playing well, to be fair, and then came off at half-time.

“He continued so that’s a sign for him that hopefully it’s not a big one for him. With Dominic, I don’t know, but he felt something in his hamstring.

“And with Amadou, I just think it was more of a sprained ankle, which he actually had in training yesterday, and then he took a couple of knocks in the game and had to come off for it.” – The Independent/Agencies