Why I dropped Iheanacho for Ayoze – Rodgers

Leicester City manager, Brendan Rogers, has explained why he picked Ayoze Pérez ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho against Stoke City on Saturday.

The Foxes had Jamie Vardy out with a hip problem and Perez was the manager’s choice to take on Stoke and the Spanish player did not disappoint as he registered his name on the score sheet as Leicester qualified for the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The manager said he felt Ayoze was better, during his post-match interview with Leicesterlive.

“I thought he (Ayoze) was excellent,” Rodgers said.

“With Stoke playing with three centre-halves, and three strong centre-halves who are good in the duel, and then with the system they were playing with the three midfield players, we thought we could have a striker who could detach himself from the defenders to give us an extra man in midfield.

“Ryan Shawcross and Harry Souttar and the boys are very strong and very aggressive, so taking one of the players off that forward line and come in and play in midfield, to give us that four versus three.

“Whereas, Kelechi is more a player who plays on the last line and behind it.

“So, I thought Ayo did very well. He deserved his goal and worked very hard.” Punch