Football from the Puel era

IF FANS were expecting a dramatic change from the Claude Puel era, they can think again. With Brendan Rodgers at the helm, Leicester are not going to revert to the counter-attacking football that won them the Premier League. You won’t see his teams booting it up the pitch. Rodgers wants his teams to play out from the back, dominate possession and press high. While his high-intensity approach at Celtic took Manchester City by surprise in his first Champions League campaign, Rodgers’s reluctance to change his tactics against other technically superior opponents in Europe saw his team found out. His abrupt, mid-season exit from Celtic means he has time to work with his players on the training ground, so they can hit the ground running next season. But the biggest challenge for Rodgers will be his relationship with the club’s senior players. Unless he can get the big personalities in this dressing room onside, he will have little chance of succeeding.