Five tasks for Brendan Rodgers to complete during Leicester City pre-season

Now Leicester City are back in pre-season training, Brendan Rodgers has six weeks to get his team ready for the start of the new Premier League campaign.

Beyond the day-to-day work with the players on the training ground, there are plenty of tasks for the manager. Here, we take a look at five vital jobs for Rodgers.

With more time on the training pitch and work in close quarters, pre-season provides an opportunity for a manager to assess their squad as a whole. But it also gives them a chance to observe younger players more closely, with the development and academy players typically brought in alongside the senior pros, particularly when there’s a glut of stars still on holiday following their international commitments.

Rodgers has welcomed a big group of up-and-coming talents into his pre-season squad over the first couple of days at Seagrave, including those just back from loan spells as well as prospects from the club’s talented Under-18 side. These next few weeks will allow him to watch them and decide what’s best for their futures.

If any can really impress, it is not unfathomable that they clinch a spot in Rodgers’ first-team squad. If a player can prove they have the character and ability to fill a gap in the team, or allow the club to save money in the transfer market, Rodgers won’t hesitate to take the opportunity.

There are no obvious candidates to step up into the senior squad permanently this year, like there was with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall last summer when he first returned from Luton. But, Rodgers has been keen to take a look at George Hirst after his good run of goalscoring form at Portsmouth, while Callum Wright has been tipped for bigger things after impressing at Cheltenham.

Then there are players that