Brendan Rodgers answered questions on the fitness of key players, the January transfer window and the Liverpool test, ahead of Friday night’s clash at Anfield.
Leicester City restarted their Premier League with a lacklustre performance against an in-form Newcastle United side, with the Foxes 3-0 down within 35 minutes.
Brendan Rodgers said his team ‘need to improve’ after a performance that ‘lacked aggression’, his side travel to Merseyside to face a Liverpool side fresh off a morale-boosting win against Aston Villa.
On the fitness of James Maddison and Dennis Praet
Leicester were without their star man Maddison on Boxing Day, with the England international struggling with a new knee issue, since returning from Qatar.
Rodgers said he will be assessed in London after sustaining a new knock.
"Maddison won’t be available for the game. He was with Mark Waller, our doctor, getting some special advice in London today so I’ll wait to hear from them later on."
“He hasn’t trained with the squad. He was clearly getting treatment out in Qatar and he and the medical team deemed him okay to train. He was available for games for England. He’s come back here, looked to do some work, and then felt a pain in a different part of his knee.
"The medical team have assessed that. He tried to go out and do some multidirectional work and he was getting pain from that. The medical team and the Club have gone down to London to get another opinion on it and to see where he’s at. That’s where we’re up to at this moment in time."
Dennis Praet was forced off with injury against Newcastle after landing awkwardly.
The midfielder had started to force his way back into Rodgers’ plans after spending time out on loan at Italian side Torino.
"Praet won’t be available either. He’s still sore and struggling with his side so we’ll look to see where he’s at."
On the January Transfer Window
Leicester City will be looking to strengthen in key areas after a quiet summer that saw only Alex Smithies and Wout Faes come through the door.
Injuries to Jonny Evans, James Justin, and Ricardo Pereira have left Leicester light across the back line.
Rodgers called on the board to back him during the transfer window.
“Most of my teams have always had two wingers who are fast and can threaten the backline. Left-back, we need somebody to come in, because we’ve only got Luke.
”We need more stature in the team. Clearly, you need that at centre-half. The stature of the team can increase. The power and speed in the front-line is clearly needed.”
Leicester will also want to prioritise contract discussions with key players coming into the last year and a half of their contracts.
“There’s been ongoing conversations with Soyuncu, Amartey, and Evans as well. We’ve been speaking to the representatives for a while.”
On the Liverpool test
Rodgers will be returning to his old team on Friday night, with the aim of guiding Leicester to their first win at Anfield in 25 years.
Ahead of the tie, Rodgers was keen to praise his former club.
“They’ve got the same identity, press and aggression. Those aspects you’ve seen over the past number of years. They want to score goals. Always a difficult game and nobody knows that more than myself. Challenges are there to be overcome.”
Liverpool announced the signing of Cody Gakpo for an initial £37m.
Rodgers’ side came up against Gakpo when Leicester played PSV in last season’s Europa Conference League.
“There’s been a lot of speculation around Cody Gakpo for a while. He played off the side and through the middle against us. He clearly has an eye for goal. He’s got good speed. He may take time to adapt, but he’s certainly a good player.”
Liverpool host Leicester City at Anfield on Friday, December 30th at 8pm.