Brendan Rodgers has praised the Leeds United players for playing in a ‘respectful way’ and noticed that they hardly argue with referees, as he told his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s game.
Leicester City will welcome the 100 miles per hour Yorkshire engine to the Midlands later on today for a potentially tactically entertaining and attacking showdown.
The last time the duo met, Leeds conceded four goals as Rodgers side exposed the open space in behind Marcelo Bielsa’s defence, and that could prove to be a problem once again today.
Nonetheless, Rodgers shared his thoughts on how Leeds players approach referees during games.
On planning to play Leeds: “It’s really enjoyable,” said Rodgers. “I looked to the first game when we played them and they were coming off the back of some great results.
“Marcelo’s teams, I have always followed over this last decade or so and they always play this exciting brand of football. And the style is something you don’t see virtually at all in the Premier League where it’s up to, at least, eight players man-to-man marking.
“So, that in itself is great from a coaching perspective to look at them – they play in a really respectful way. If you watch them, they aren’t arguing with referees so much. And they have great integrity in the game.”
The Leeds players will be pretty glad to hear that the silent deadly speedster Jamie Vardy won’t be taking to the field today.
That’s one less worry for Kalvin Phillips and Leeds’ centre-backs to deal with because he won’t be threatening to hurt them with the space they leave behind their defence.
But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t an abundance of talent, speed and technical quality on show because James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, James Justin, Kelechi Iheanacho and Youri Tielemans will be licking their lips.
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