Was Brendan Rodgers right to call out his Leicester City players?

Let’s remind ourselves of the comments made by Brendan Rodgers after last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Brighton.

‘There’s a number of our players who don’t care enough when they have it. They’re happy to give it away, or not bothered enough to give it away.’

‘That’s where the team is at. It’s nowhere near the level I would want it to be, in terms of quality. But you have to respect the players that are available, they’re playing and giving their everything. We’re so short in many areas.’

It seemed a risky decision, with the possible side effect of demotivating players already low on confidence. But was he right?

Yes

James Knight

There has to come a point where you draw the line. If someone is routinely making mistakes, you have to call them out. This is true in any walk of life, but is even more the case with professional sport. The ‘aw shucks, unlucky boys’ attitude will only take you so far.

Arguably, Rodgers’ biggest failing has allowing things to slide up to now. His relentless positivity is great when things are going well, but every time we’ve hit a rough spell the rot has set in. Not calling his players out before now has helped to breed a culture that lacks the winning edge.

Instead of high expectations and a lack of tolerance for mistakes, we’ve turned into a team that accepts them because there are no consequences. So we never grind out results. We always concede at the end. We can’t pull off the dark arts.

Brighton was just the latest manifestation of it. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall giving the ball away with a flick on the half way line that led directly to Mitoma’s goal. Patson Daka giving the ball away on the edge of the area and the rest of the team losing 50-50 challenges to set up the equaliser. If you don’t call the team out after that, you’re never going to do it. And if you never do it, nothing is going to change.

Every other manager calls their players out when it’s warranted. Pep Guardiola, deranged man that he is, did it after a 4-2 win the other day. It was clearly warranted here. There is a basic level of care and attention you expect from players at this level. It’s not like this is a team full of teenagers. Most of them are internationals.

Given he seems impervious from the sack, Rodgers finally losing patience with them is a good sign. The Great Reset should start here. If you’re going to keep making the same mistakes or you don’t want to be here, begone. If you can’t handle a mild telling off in public from the manager, you can go as well.

Even if we were to sack the manager, the first order of business for the new one would be to give this team an almighty kick up the arse. Some sort of change is necessary to save this season from turning into a disaster. We aren’t going to get the sacking, but at least we might get the arse-kicking.

No

Helen Thompson

Oh, Brendan. It had been at least eight weeks since your post match comments left me eye rolling and sighing at the screen. The Rodgers post match word bingo had already become a thing on Twitter but I thought he had turned a corner.

His post-Nottingham Forest words actually took some responsibility instead of suggesting it was all down to no transfers, no money, injuries, inexperience and whatever else he has previously leaned on. Instead, I've been annoyed for a few days again.

What Brendan said may well be true. Assuming you enjoy a riddle and a contradiction, you'll love a Rodgers post match interview. Perhaps there are players who aside from struggling lately just don't care enough.

However, it's rather confusing when he then goes on to say "You have to respect the players that are available, they're playing and giving their everything". One has to assume he is digging out two lots of players for different reasons. You either don't care or you do care and you're trying but you're just not that great?

Confused? Yeah, me too.

Regardless of which comment, publicly shaming a squad who generally look low on confidence doesn't seem like a solution. It's hardly motivating to hear your boss saying things like you're inexperienced (we aren't) or comments like the above.

Maybe they work for one or two players (I do imagine Timothy Castagne may feed off some anger in private for example - though he has been on the receiving end of a Rodgers public outing and rightly didn’t like it) but you wouldn't blame some if they thought 'well sod trying then' if that's how it'll be met.

On the comment of 'players who don't want it, or don't care'; if there are some wantaway players who are so unmotivated then surely it's your job, Brendan, to address it or stop playing them assuming your words aren't working?

OK, our squad isn't huge with the current injury list but we have an academy you'd assume is full of hungry, motivated players. They may lack maturity and skill but they will give their all. Perhaps that would send a stronger message to whoever he was aiming his comments at. If any team knows the benefit of a squad who are together and work their socks off being able to overachieve, it's Leicester City.

One presumes neither comment weren't pitched at the likes of Dewsbury-Hall and Maddison, but outside of them it's a free for all given recent form and results. It's not like Brendan is the only manager who's ever done this. Some are more extreme - see Jose Mourinho who has no qualms naming names. If you sign for him or work under him, you know what you're getting.

Personally, I don't like it. Have the conversations privately, yell and scream but unless they've broken a law or done something utterly ridiculous, I am very much in the camp of backing your players to the media given they represent your game plan and tactics for ninety minutes.