Brendan Rodgers, the former manager of Leicester City, asserts Jamie Vardy and James Maddison
Recent news from Leicester City: former manager Brendan Rodgers likens two Celtic players to Jamie Vardy and James Maddison
Two of his Celtic players have drawn comparisons to Jamie Vardy and James Maddison from former Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers.
Inquiries were made to Rodgers concerning striker Kyogo Furuhashi and midfielder Matt O’Riley, who was rumored to be heading to Leicester while Rodgers was manager. Both players are having a great run at Celtic Park, leading to comparisons to Maddison and Vardy.
“I had James Maddison and Jamie Vardy who were similar,” Rodgers stated. “Coutinho was comparable to Suarez or Daniel Sturridge.
“When you watch James Madison play, you’ll notice that he constantly needs runners—a connection with the person in front of him. Observe him now as he retrieves the ball; he has a son that he will tend to and locate; in my case, it was Jamie Vardy. He was excellent; all he needed to do was touch the ball, and Jamie would take care of the pass.
You could see early on with those two that the little link passes they played allowed you to advance in the game. I believe that good players find each other and have those solutions.
Really, it’s a little bit of everything. On the training field, you create patterns and follow the players’ intelligence as well. It’s game intelligence and improvisation.
Making the correct choices in a game and demonstrating it is one thing, but doing it in a pressure-free environment is quite another. It combines all of the elements. It matters how training and the game relate to each other.
It’s the composure and the bravery to have fun. We were very confident [that night] and had authority in our football, unlike other times when I’ve seen maybe the lower teams at that level playing a bigger team and looking nervous on the ball.
“The move was absolutely brilliant, and we had another couple of great moves in the game that didn’t quite have the last pass, but the goal…how we sped up the game around the final third is what you want to see.”
