After Liverpool left him tainted, Brendan Rodgers is rewriting the narrative of his career with Leicester

A manager and club rising together, there are no longer any questions over whether Rodgers is ready

Back in Brendan Rodgers’s first few weeks as Leicester City manager, one football figure was going for a meeting with the club, and was mindful of some of the… perceptions of the Irishman. One story that had gone around was regarding a supposed comment made in contract talks with a former player.

“If you’re as good as you think you are,” Rodgers was purported to have began, “and I’m as good as I know I am, we’ll go far.”

It may have been just that: a story. It nevertheless formed a perception… until that perception came up against an actual meeting.

This football figure was blown away by Rodgers, and seriously impressed. It was not just the football vision, but the articulation of it, and the way it was underpinned by a personal touch.

Those who know Rodgers wouldn’t say he’s “changed”, but do say he has matured. There is a feeling that he maybe wasn’t quite ready for the exact size of Liverpool during his time there between 2012 and 2015, and that may have led to his more questionable comments and moments.

“One thing about Brendan is that he’s always been an excellent coach,” one source says. “A fully-matured Brendan might well be a major force to be reckoned with.”

Leicester are already a force being greatly respected in the Premier League, and there’s certainly no question Rodgers is ready for this.

It might in fact be that perfect moment in time, where an upwardly mobile manager suits an upwardly mobile club - and why it was precisely so right to leave Celtic. Because it’s not just Rodgers that has matured. So have Leicester.

There are some long-term employees who genuinely believe that the current squad is better than the title-winning squad, and that the club is in a much better place.

Brendan Rodgers has matured since his time at Liverpool (Reuters)

That isn’t much of an exaggeration. The title season was in itself a perfect moment in time, where a solid squad with three world-class players came together for a generational run of good form at the exact same period all of the big clubs were suffering generational lulls. It was pretty much unrepeatable, based on a lot of luck going their way, and on relatively out-of-date football ideas that modern managers wouldn’t want to repeat.

That is not the case now. No one would describe this Leicester squad as “solid”. It is instead one of the brightest in Europe, featuring some of the most promising young players in Europe.

They have all been introduced in-line with a fully-formed football idea, that was only introduced after the title win, and that glorious season allowed the platform for. It has meant they are now a “more balanced and intelligent” club.

In that, this Leicester team have more of an identity and idea of themselves than Manchester United, Arsenal and maybe even Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

Brendan Rodgers celebrates with his Leicester players (Getty)

And this is where Rodgers comes in, rather literally. It is one of those cases where the coach’s own ideas suit the club’s, and the idea is for both to mutually complement each other so everyone improves.

Rodgers has undeniably given this squad a better - and more sophisticated - tactical shape to work within. That shape in itself is based on core principles, known among his coaching staff as the “three Ps”.

They are “possession, pressing, penetration”. “That is what football is really about,” as the staff often say.

The aim is to get the players to apply these, from an initial core formation - or, as they actually describe it, “defensive shape” - for when they don’t have the ball. What the staff then most concentrate on is transitions, and how they go from winning the ball to hurting the opposition with it - the three Ps combined in one key spell of play.

This only truly works, however, if the players actually understand the idea.

“That’s the fundamental,” Chelsea’s Pedro told The Independent two weeks ago. If the manager can’t transmit his ideas, and the players don’t understand it, you’ve a problem. When your players can follow it, though, you’ve already won a lot in a season.”

And this is where Rodgers is seen as especially effective, and even better than he used to be. It is not just the sophistication of his ideas, but how simple he has made them to grasp.

Game insight and communication are these days the most valuable attributes in management,” one source says. “Brendan is good at both of these, and got better.

“He’s at good breaking down players’ responsibilities on the pitch into simple and direct instructions.

“I think he is also very effective at taking things on board and making them his. The reality is that all coaches borrow from other coaches, whether via subtle or very direct influence. Brendan is good at spotting things and seeing ways for them to work within the confines of his teams.

Brendan Rodgers has a brilliant young squad of players (Reuters)

It is also where his maturity comes in. Many say he is just better at connecting with players, and thereby deriving a more emotionally-invested level of performance.

Some, after all, would freely say that his “personality” became “an issue for Liverpool players”, even though many would reflect positively on their time with him.

“He has an awareness now that he lacked,” the same source says. “His manner with the players is friendly and shows them that he has their backs. He often drops some weakness or fault of his own into discussions with players. The message is: ‘I make mistakes, I’m not asking for perfection, but I need you to do this, this and this.’”

There is a feeling that Rodgers was more hurt by how Liverpool ended than he would have let on, and that it could have gone either way afterwards. But he has learnt from it. He’s more likely to reference the source of a story now, rather than pass it off as his studied philosophical approach.

“He’s realised less is more.”

Brendan Rodgers' Leicester has overtaken Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Manchester United (Reuters)

And it means that Leicester may well offer Liverpool more of a challenge than they’ve had so far this season. They may well finally be the team to disrupt that winning run.

There is an acceptance among some at Leicester that they froze a little when losing to United at Old Trafford. That defeat was a bit of a “narrative-buster”, in that it was fully expected Rodgers’s side would show how much better they are by winning… only for them to lose.

And yet the wider story hasn’t actually changed. Leicester are still well ahead of United in the table, looking much better placed to finish in the top four.

That is partly because Rodgers has started to change the narrative of his career.

He, and Leicester, look like they’re going far.