Has Brendan Rodgers take Leicester as far as he can?
By Oli Dickson Jefford
In a fairly open start to the Premier League season, Leicester are one team who have struggled.
The FA Cup champions sit 12th in the table with only 15 points so far, having already lost five times in the league this season.
There have been highs - notably a win over Manchester United - but for a team with European ambitions, it’s been a disappointing start overall.
Brendan Rodgers has been at the helm since February 2019 and has done a good job since arriving at the King Power Stadium almost three years ago.
However, is Leicester’s below-par start to the season a sign that he has taken the club as far as he can?
How has he changed Leicester?
After Leicester’s shock run to the title in 2016, many wondered if they would become permanent fixtures at the top of the table.
That wasn’t the case as the club loitered around the mid-table mark, with Claudio Ranieri fired less than a year after guiding the Foxes to a famous title win.
Rodgers took over from Claude Puel after the Frenchman was fired with the Foxes 12th in the table after five defeats in their past six league matches.
He guided them to ninth by the end of the season and then steered them to two more successful campaigns.
Leicester finished fifth in both the last two seasons and May’s FA Cup triumph - a 1-0 win over Chelsea in the final - was their first ever victory in the historic tournament.
However, those seasons were not without disappointment.
While the three-month suspension during the 2019-20 campaign could be used as an excuse, last year’s late collapse was incredibly disappointing.
Having sat in third for most the season, defeats to Chelsea and Tottenham in their final matches saw them fall to fifth having been usurped by The Blues and Liverpool.
Rodgers turned Leicester into a side competing for European spots though the failure to secure Champions League football will frustrate him.
Can he do any more?
Considering what he has achieved at Leicester and where the club sit now, Rodgers has probably taken Leicester as far as he can.
Champions League football is unlikely this season, while Leicester remain a club still likely to act as a ‘feeder’ for bigger clubs.
With the likes of Harvey Barnes and James Maddison - who have thrived under Rodgers - potentially heading elsewhere next summer, it may provide a convenient opportunity to move on.
The only problem is that there is no obvious path for either Rodgers or Leicester should they part ways.
The Northern Irishman was rumoured to be a candidate for the Man Utd job even before recent events, but with Mauricio Pochettino and Zinedine Zidane also in the conversation that now looks unlikely.
While from a Leicester perspective, there are no obvious candidates in terms of an available manager who would be able to push them back into the ‘Top Four’ race in the future.
Whatever happens, Rodgers will hope for a turnaround in form with league matches against Watford and Southampton coming up.
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