London: Brendan Rodgers insists he is the man to lead Leicester City up the Premier League table despite his side sitting bottom with only one point from their opening six games.
A 6-2 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur a fortnight ago was Leicester’s sixth successive league loss and heaped pressure on Rodgers who is the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next top-flight manager to lose his job.
Leicester host newly-promoted Nottingham Forest on Monday.
“If you are bottom and have lost six out of seven you are not going to be flavour of the month,” the Northern Irishman told reporters. “You don’t isolate yourself, that’s important, I love working with these players.
“I believe, like last season, we will come good. It has been a tough start but I see these players work and it ultimately gives me strength.” Asked if he still had the support of the club’s owners, Rodgers said: “I’m the best person to help this team move forward. The ownership trust me and expect I will turn it around. If they don’t they will tell me.
“Our conversations are very open and honest. I’ve seen Top (Leicester chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha) a number of times and we speak when he’s over.
'Real challenge'
“I’ve had nothing but support from the club but I also understand where we sit.” Former Liverpool and Celtic manager Rodgers has won the FA Cup for Leicester and twice finished fifth in the table before slipping to eighth last season.
Despite a sense of regression, Rodgers said he still has “joy” for the job and regards the current situation as a challenge. “A lot of the time here has been on the up, but this season has been a real challenge,” Rodgers said.
“I’m really enjoying the moment in terms of looking to prove that I can steer the team out of it. I’ve seen enough to know the players are close to doing that.
“We just need to be hardened in certain areas.”
