Brendan Rodgers' Leicester admission sparks bad memories of his Liverpool demise

Last time Brendan Rodgers faced Liverpool, he got a much-needed victory off his old club to allay some nagging doubts beginning to creep in at Leicester City.

Leicester won 1-0 at the King Power Stadium on December 28, keeping a rare clean sheet to go into the New Year with a spring in their step.

Fast-forward 44 days and the narrative has flipped completely. Since then, Liverpool have gone seven games unbeaten across all competitions, despite missing two of their biggest stars due to the Africa Cup of Nations, while Leicester have slumped into a worrying position.

The 4-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup was seismic in the East Midlands. It was an embarrassing derby defeat for the Foxes against a side in the division below – and the fallout has been extreme.

Rodgers took a remarkable tone in his post-match assessment, throwing his players under the bus by questioning their application, ability and motivation.

The Foxes manager questioned his players’ “hunger and desire to win” and made the eye-catching statement that “a lot of these players are not top players”.

“There are a lot of these players, between now and the end of the season, who need to prove that they are still worthy of being here, because we’ve seen it now for a little while,” he said.

“Forget about the players who are missing. There are players here that may have achieved everything that they can here. It’s not what I want to do.

“It’s something we’ll have to look at between now and the end of the season. Until then, they’ve got to have a look at themselves in the mirror and fight like hell to prove they’re good enough to be here.”

Those words are designed to provoke a response from his players, but they are also likely to have the