THE OPPOSITION

It may have been a slow start to the season for Leicester City but eight goals in two games this week show that Brendan Rodgers' side remain one of the most dangerous outfits in the Premier League.

One win in five at the end of last season cost them a Champions League place and that poor run looked to carry over into this campaign as The Foxes won just three of their first ten matches in all competitions.

However, the reigning FA Cup and Community Shield holders put four past Manchester United last Saturday before repeating the trick in midweek against Spartak Moscow in the Europa League; summer signing Patson Daka getting all four in Moscow.

Daka now has five goals in all competitions this season but it is the ageless Jamie Vardy (above) who leads Leicester's scoring charts with seven league goals in eight outings.

In midfield, Youri Tielemans has been getting admiring glances from some of Europe's biggest clubs while between the sticks Kasper Schmeichel hasn't missed a league game for Leicester since May 2018.

THE GAMEPLAN

Writing for Hot Off The Press Jordan Blackwell of Leicestershire Live, said: "Before the international break, Rodgers said he would have to look at the way he sets up the team because it isn’t working at the minute, so essentially, he is still experimenting to try and find the best option to solve their dilemmas. The formation they have started more regularly with this season is a 4-2-3-1, with forward-thinking full-backs. It’s almost asymmetrical in that the right-back – whether that is Timothy Castagne or Ricardo Pereira – will be expected to push on and play as a winger or certainly a wing-back and the left-back – which has tended to be Ryan Bertrand – drops in and forms a back three with the centre-backs. Then there will be two central midfielders, one of whom is likely to be Youri Tielemans (above) and two wide players in Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman. It is still a team with a hell of a lot of talent, it just isn’t clicking for them at the moment.

TEAM NEWS

Mads Bech (knee), Josh Dasilva (hip), Yoane Wissa (ankle) and Shandon Baptiste (shoulder) are all out and Thomas Frank will have a late assessment on Vitaly Janelt to see if he can be involved.

For Leicester there will be no Wesley Fofana (leg), Marc Albrighton (shin), Wilfred Ndidi (hamstring), or James Justin (knee) but Ayoze Perez, Youri Tielemans, and Timothy Castagne should all be fit to play. Jonny Evans is managing a foot issue, having started The Foxes two games this week.

MATCH STATS

THE MANAGER

Brendan Rodgers was on the books at Reading before having to give up the game at the age of 20 due to a genetic knee condition. He moved in to coaching and has made his name off the pitch.

He started his full-time coaching career - after travelling around Spain to learn from some of the best in the game - at Chelsea and progressed to Reserve Team Manager before leaving for Watford in 2008. He spent only seven months in Hertfordshire before a move to Reading but he was sacked after six months.

Rodgers then moved to Swansea and his career took off. He took them into the Premier League in his first season and kept them up before moving to Liverpool in 2012. The Reds were in position to win the Premier League in 2013/14 but faltered at the last and Manchester City took the title. Rodgers ended up leaving in late 2015 and moved to Celtic the following summer, winning every domestic trophy he competed in as Celtic went on to complete a third treble in a row following his departure in February 2019.

At the King Power Stadium he's led The Foxes to back-to-back fifth-placed finishes in his two full seasons as well as the FA Cup and Community Shield.

THE OPPOSITION VIEW

Leicester frontman Kelechi Iheanacho told lcfc.com: “Hopefully it will be a good game. They are a good side but hopefully we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve started good now. Hopefully we will pick up from there and we will keep winning games now, do very well and give the fans something.

“I’ve watched them a couple of times now and they’ve been doing really well. But it’s nothing new to us. Of course, we know how they are, we’ve played them before. But I think they are a different side now, they know this is the Premier League.

“It’s going to be a tough game for us. We need to take them seriously; we just need to play our game and we need to be ready for the fight. I think that we need to be fast, play quick and shift the ball from side to side.”