Rodgers says winning streak can help Leicester overcome fixture congestion

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers admits a hectic schedule will seem easier for his side if they can maintain their winning form.

The Foxes regained second spot in the Premier League after equalling a club record dating back to March 1963 of seven straight wins in the top flight with a 2-0 victory against Watford on Wednesday night.

Rodgers’ team play six more times in December as they look to both remain on the coattails of leaders Liverpool, who they host at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day, and reach the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

Asked if winning helps keep away tired legs, the Northern Irishman said: “It’s important. You are never going to be perfect in your performance with so many games.

“We had some brilliant moments of fast football (against Watford) and there were moments of that, but there are other games when you have to show your mentality as a team and have that stamina to keep going, and the players have that.

“It’s a busy month for everyone but when you’re winning games and you have that confidence in your game to win, then you look forward to the next one.

“We’ll go to Aston Villa on Sunday, it’s a wonderful stadium, the pitch is fantastic and fast and hopefully look forward to a really good game and keeping this run going for as long as we can.”

Watford remain bottom of the table and seven points adrift of safety after a ninth defeat of the season.

However, under-23 coach Hayden Mullins, who is in charge of the first team until the club find a new manager, believes the Hornets are capable of getting out of trouble if they can consistently produce the level of performance they did at the King Power Stadium.

“We’ll be taking loads of bits from that game and trying to build on them,” said Mullins. “I said to the players at the end that if they show that same fight, that same drive and that same commitment and professionalism right until the end of the season, I’m sure we’ll be in a very good place.

“When you look at where the two teams are in the league, to come here and do what we did is a fantastic positive to take away.

“We wanted to try and come here and be solid and try and press from our shape, but also we wanted to counter attack when we could. I thought we did that.”

FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.