3 reasons why Brendan Rodgers needs to answer his critics at Leicester City

#3 He’s got a very high opinion of himself

Rodgers has been compared to Ricky Gervais' David Brent character

During his time at Liverpool, it was noted by many people that Rodgers had a lot of faith in his own abilities as a coach and a manager. There’s nothing wrong with self-belief of course, but the Northern Irishman quite often came across as his own biggest fan, and was even compared to Ricky Gervais’ legendary character David Brent from The Office for some of his quotes – lines like “my biggest mentor is myself” and “the problem with being a manager is that it’s like trying to build an aircraft while it’s flying”.

The problem is that to justify a high opinion of yourself in a sport like football, you’ve got to back it up with results on the pitch. That’s why critics of Rodgers couldn’t help but smile when his Liverpool side struggled in 2014/15 after selling Luis Suarez and then spending £117m on new players – Rodgers had, of course, aimed a jibe at Tottenham for doing the same thing a season earlier after selling Gareth Bale.

While he’s been less of a presence in the English media during his time at Celtic, then, winning so many trophies north of the border would suggest that his opinion of his managerial and coaching skills is hardly likely to have dropped over the past 3 years. And in fact, Rodgers has already stated that his goal at Leicester City is to secure a European place and also win a trophy.

With that much faith in himself, Rodgers essentially can’t afford to fail at Leicester, or else he risks becoming the laughing stock of the Premier League – as he did towards the end of his tenure at Liverpool. And that’s why he needs to answer those critics by either succeeding at the King Power Stadium – or by keeping his Brent-like quotes to a minimum.