Rodgers happy to mark tributes to Vichai with victory

Brendan Rodgers was delighted his players produced an attacking and winning performance against Bournemouth as Leicester City fans paid tribute to former owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. Srivaddhanaprabha, who died when his helicopter crashed after a Leicester match last October, would have turned 61 next week, and the club marked the occasion by offering supporters free beer and cake, a regular tradition when he was alive.

After 61 minutes, fans sung an emotional tribute, holding applause and waving banners to celebrate the man who oversaw the club's famous Premier League title win in 2016. Leicester won Saturday's match 2-0 to move up to eighth in the Premier League, recording their third straight victory under an impressed Rodgers.

"We are here to play a brand of football that's attacking and aggressive and on a day that's a special occasion the fans showed their appreciation," Rodgers said at his post-match media conference. "I hope they enjoyed the day. The atmosphere in here is incredible when the fans have a team that attacks with speed and quality and I think we saw that."

Wes Morgan scored for the second straight game to cap a memorable spell, the club captain having signed a new contract last week, and Jamie Vardy sealed the win late on. "The big guy has been brilliant," Rodgers said of Morgan. "He's fit and strong and he played it simple over 10-15 metres and helped the team build the game – and we know already that he's a brilliant defender. I'm very pleased for him.

"We were very cohesive in the way we played and it was good to see the ideas coming through after just three or four weeks of working with the players.  "It was a very good performance, especially off the back of an international break. "The pressing and aggression was outstanding. With the ball going forward we were very exciting and defensively we kept a clean sheet. It's remarkable what the players have given." 

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Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe offered an honest assessment of his side's performance after a 10th away loss in 11 games. "We looked leggy and short of our normal sharpness and that definitely showed in the result," he told reporters. "I don't think we were ourselves and Leicester did play very well.

"But first and foremost you have to look at yourselves and analyse your own display. Leicester did play well but we have fallen short of what we expect, the players looked tired and we are very disappointed with the result. "The players looked tired, the ones who went away with their international teams. I'm not trying to make excuses, Jefferson Lerma travelled across the world and naturally they were tired.

"It's not a new thing for Premier League teams and you have to deal with it, it's a situation we'll want to manage better in the future." 

30 de marzo de 2019