New Leicester City manager Rodgers targets European place, silverware

New Leicester City Football Club manager Brendan Rodgers said on Friday he would be targeting silverware and qualifying for Europe with the English Premier League (EPL) clubside.

The Northern Irishman fielded questions in his first press conference since leaving Scottish Premiership side Celtic to take over at the EPL side, ahead of Sunday’s match at Watford.

Rodgers, the former Liverpool manager, said the squad had huge potential and that good things could be in their future.

“I think the expectation is to challenge for a European place and to look to win a trophy,” Rodgers said.

“This group of players has huge potential. We need to improve and we will improve.”

The surprise 2016 champions Leicester sit 11th in the league and Rodgers said he had already identified the areas in
which the squad could get better.

“I think we need to play with more intensity and we need to defend with a greater pressure,” he said.

“My teams are very structured. We need to play with structure, which takes time, and then be able to improvise (in attack).

“We will try to finish as high in the league as we can this season and then look to improve again in the summer, when there is a (transfer) window to improve the squad.”

Rodgers was criticised by some Celtic fans for leaving before the end of the season.

But though he said the opportunity was too good to turn down, he sympathised with the feelings of some supporters.

“My family have grown up to become Celtic supporters. I made a whole host of friends in the club, players an absolutely incredible bunch, all the staff were amazing for me, the supporters from the first day I walked in were incredible home and away,” he said.

“I have seen some of what has been said. Celtic supporters will hurt, and I understand that.

“They may be worried about what may happen with me leaving. But with the improvements we made, we left the club in a really good position.”