Under-pressure Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers has no interest in seeking the backing of Leicester ’s Thai owners.
The winless Foxes fell to a fifth straight defeat to stay rooted to the bottom of the Premier League after a dismal 5-2 defeat at Brighton. Five straight league defeats was enough to see Claudio Ranieri sacked – and he’d won a Premier League title nine months earlier.
Now Rodgers has matched that unenviable record to crank up the pressure. He has never lost five in a row during his managerial career and Leicester haven’t had a start this bad since 1989 in the Old Second Division.
When asked if he had the backing of his paymasters, the downbeat Northern Irishman said: “I’ve never asked for it in all my time here. I’ve never wanted it.
“I’ll continue to do my work and come in and study and do as much as I can. I’ve never turned work down. I’ve always come in early and finished late at night and until someone tells me differently I’ll continue to do that.
“The challenge, we have to embrace it, I’m certainly not going to shirk it. It’s been really difficult but we just need to get that laser focus on the team working well and hopefully then the supporters can really support the team."
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Rodgers has never had a run as bad as this, but he has the template to escape the relegation zone from his managerial debut at Watford – but it will need investment in January.
The manager, who secured a mid-tale finish that time, added: “We have the players we have that have the skill-set they have, and we have to try to maximise what we can get out of them. We have to try to find a way.
“For us, it’s like a jigsaw. We’ve got pieces missing. It’s a constant challenge to try to fill the gaps where the pieces are missing. That’s the reality. It won’t stop us trying and working and fighting to get the best results we can. Football can change very quickly and if we get one result, that will bring a lot of confidence into the players and then we can move on from there.
“The players are giving everything, they’re fighting but the team is in a difficult moment, and when you’re in that moment the confidence can be a little bit low. But it’s my job and the staff’s job to keep them up there, to keep them fighting, keep them working, and football can change very quickly.
“I’m more concerned about playing well because when we play well we can get the results but we can’t sustain the performance level for long enough which has left us short in a number of the games.”
Brighton boss Graham Potter said: “We've lost a couple of key players in the summer but our performances as a group have been strong even though results haven't matched them. It's nice the last few weeks we're getting performances and results. We have to carry on because the Premier League is difficult. It's a humble and ambitious group and we must keep going.
"Five goals at home, we've had some frustrating afternoons here so it's nice to get the win, to play well, have an entertaining game and get the seven goals. It was a nice day for us."
