Brendan Rogers: 'We will keep playing how we play. It's our way'

Brendan Rodgers has fulfilled a 'dream' in guiding Swansea to the top flight, but, he tells Robin Scott-Elliot, he won't abandon his possession philosophy to stay there

It is the morning after the night before; the "worst night" of Brendan Rodgers' football career.

A disgruntled manager and his embarrassed team had arrived back in Swansea at 2am. Not much sleep had followed for Rodgers and now here he is, once again ensconced in his small, windowless office in a sports centre off the Heads of the Valley Road outside Neath.

"Shrews stun Swans" was how the morning's Western Mail labelled the Premier League side's clumsy exit from the Carling Cup. Outside the sun is shining and chastened players are arriving for training alongside members of the Glamorgan Health and Racquets Club, wandering in to play tennis and dropping their children off in the playroom that is a toddler's leap from Rodgers' office. In his sanctuary, Rodgers picked up the phone and traded commiserations with Norwich City manager Paul Lambert, his friend and another with a bad night behind him.

"I spoke to Paul this morning," says Rodgers later, training done and back behind his desk on which sits a plaque instructing, "Dream it. Believe it. Achieve it". "The make-up of our groups are similar in being honest sets of players who have given us everything. Paul and I have got everything we can from them and that's enabled us to earn promotion. Last night was a shock for us both. He said when he heard my [post-match] interview... it was what he was thinking."

Norwich endured an even worse result on Tuesday, beaten 4-0 at home by MK Dons, and for two young managers – Rodgers is 38, Lambert four years his senior – seeking to make their names at the highest level, such defeats don't rest easy regardless of the competition.

"For us to stay in the Premier League I need 25 players all at their maximum," says Rodgers, in a soft accent that rises from his Northern Irish roots. "Last night [Tuesday] gave me food for thought in terms of their mentality. It was a disappointment because the players demonstrated something that I hadn't seen, or very rarely, since I've been here – the lack of a positive attitude." He grimaces and sits up. "But we're back in today, it's important to recover physically and mentally. You have to move on."

This afternoon Swansea host Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium. That is followed by trips to Arsenal and Chelsea divided by another home game, against West Bromwich. It is home form – Swansea lost 11 times on their Championship travels in the previous campaign – that is likely to decide whether Rodgers and his men remain in the Premier League for more than a debut season. A home draw against Wigan last Saturday at least brought a first point but getting that first win today, no matter how it comes, is surely all important?

"I don't think it matters," says Rodgers. "Ideally, yes. But you can start well and finish poorly [as Blackpool and Burnley did]. As long as you arrive at the points total you need at the last game of the season it doesn't matter which way they come about."

What Rodgers wants at this early stage from a group of players who have scant top-flight experience is performance. If performance is right, he argues, the points will come. "We will get better as we move on," he says. "They are a great group of learners. As last season went on we improved and improved and I would expect the same this season. We'd a good performance against Wigan, just didn't put the finishing touches to it.

"I always felt that the first few games were about performance as much as result. The first few performance levels were going to be important for us – could we establish and maintain the level? I think we've shown in the first two games in the League that we can do that. There is also a perspective as a club of where we are at that I'm very aware of. It's going to be difficult. But it won't stop us from being competitive and we've shown that. We showed it for nearly an hour at Manchester City, that the players have got great courage and great confidence, and we got beaten by two world-class players in David Silva and Sergio Aguero. On Saturday we had 63 per cent possession against an established Premier League team, we created chances and we didn't put them away. There's real positivity about the two performances, obviously last night soured that a little bit but it doesn't stop me feeling very positive for the future."

Rodgers himself is regarded as having a bright future. Anyone who watched his side, an XI stitched neatly together from the lower leagues, pass and move around the Etihad Stadium, for nearly an hour the equals of their expensively assembled hosts, cannot have failed to take note. In optimistic quarters of south Wales they have been breezily branded Swanselona, a glorification that if anything sums up the locals' wonder at a remarkable rise back into the top tier of English football as much as any ready likeness to the Catalan giants. There is though a distinctive way in which Rodgers directs his teams to play – something he wants to permeate through all levels at the club – and it stems from time spent as a young coach, in his early 20s, travelling the continent, in particular the Netherlands and Spain. He learnt Spanish to help him learn about the Spanish game – and then practised it on any Spanish-speaking players and staff willing to listen during his time as reserve-team coach at Chelsea.

The statistics from last season, and already in this one's two league games, give a level of credence to Swansea being cast as a Welsh outpost of the type of football that has lured queues of admirers to Holland and Spain. Last season possession was regularly in the 60 per cent bracket and even at City they were on a par with the hosts.

"It's a philosophy that's important to us. We like our teams to control and dominate the games. We had it last year in the Championship and the principle's very much the same this season. Obviously it will come under a lot more scrutiny. We will continue to play how we play – it's not a right or wrong way, it's our way. The players believe in it, the club believes in it and we've had success with it."

The glaring statistical glitch this season lies in the goals for column; it's empty. "Last season we dominated games, we created chances and we scored goals," says Rodgers. "Now for sure this season you may not create as many chances – in the Premier League games are tight, if you look at shots on target there are maybe three, four, five a game. What you have to be is clinical. I feel that that will improve for us. But because we don't have the resources that many have, we have to be different – we've a style that is different and we've proved that you can have success with that."

Accompanying Rodgers' admirable, and staunch, principles of playing the game – the goalkeeper Michel Vorm was even signed in part for his ability on the ball – is an acceptance of where Swansea are, and from where they have come. A club with an impressive modern stadium but nowhere of their own to train – the players munch their post-training chicken and pepper kebabs in a conservatory attached to the complex bar as children splash and tumble in the swimming pool outside – and a club that eight years ago nearly went out of existence because it could not pay an electricity bill.

"When I originally came here there wasn't an office," says Rodgers. "It was just open-plan so people used to just come in but of course I needed somewhere with a wee bit of privacy so this is it – the quirky little office where all the planning and preparation takes place."

That planning has led to the arrival of Danny Graham, the Championship's top scorer last season, signed from Watford for a club record £3.5m, along with Wayne Routledge, a bit-part player at a succession of Premier League clubs, the Dutch second-choice Vorm, outstanding against City, Leroy Lita, £1.75m from Middlesbrough, and Steven Caulker on loan from Tottenham. "We haven't got massive resources here," says Rodgers. "We'll be a way behind most Championship clubs. That's why we're trying to be a bit different. What we are now trying to do in the most competitive league in the world is to try and establish that. We understand it's not going to be easy, but that's part of the challenge."

Rodgers, a former Manchester United trainee, began coaching at the age of 20 when injury ended hopes of a playing career. It means he already has 18 years of experience, including time under Jose Mourinho, with whom he still exchanges texts. It is his obsession. But it is one that appears to extend beyond just formations, tactics and statistics.

"I've always seen my job as to look after the welfare of the group that I'm working with and the club," he says. "My career has taken me through working in many different situations. I looked after the welfare side of kids at Reading within the academy, that's how I got started. And I was also the welfare officer at the club, so that gave me a duty of care for people and it's not rocket science. If you show me you care and I show you I care then we can work together. I'll hopefully help people in every aspect of their life. I want to help them be the best player they possibly can but I also want to help them be the best person they possibly can."

He has long-term goals for himself and Swansea, but in the shorter term he has his sternest test yet as a manager; surviving in the Premier League. Swansea earned their place through the play-offs but despite the Wembley celebrations it was not until much later that Rodgers, for all his attention to detail, finally convinced himself he had arrived.

"All summer people were asking me how does it feel to be a Premier League manager. But I never felt it until I arrived at the League's offices for a pre-season managers' meeting," he says and grins. "It was surreal. I turned up and sat with geniuses like Sir Alex. There were 13 of us sitting round the table: Sir Alex, Arsène Wenger, Alex McLeish, and so on – that was the first time I really felt it, when I was sat in amongst them knowing that we had earned the right to be there as a football club. That was my first signal that we had achieved the dream. It has taken the club so long to arrive and now we must do everything we can to stay."

Brendan Rodgers was speaking to support the Barclays Community Sports Award for 2011/12. In its second year, it recognises outstanding achievements of those who use sport to benefit communities across the UK – www.barclayscommunitysportsaward.com

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