Brendan Rodgers inspired by Leicester crowd

London (AFP) – Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has hailed the role of the club’s fans in helping to make the King Power Stadium a formidable place to play for visiting teams.

The Foxes are unbeaten at home this season and have lost just one of their past 12 Premier League games in front of their own fans, winning nine and drawing two.

Rodgers’ side, who head into this weekend’s round of fixtures second in the table, host underachieving Everton on Sunday.

“The record we have is down to a combination of the players and supporters,” he said.

“You have to give the supporters something to shout about. When supporters see hard work, they’re paying hard-earned money to come to games. It’s our duty to inspire them. The support has been brilliant.

“When you have that combined, you can be a real force. When you have more supporters, like we do at home, it’s fantastic.”

Everton are languishing in 16th spot in the Premier League, just four points above the bottom three, and under-pressure Blues boss Marco Silva has a growing list of injury problems ahead of the trip to Leicester.

However, Rodgers is still expecting a difficult test for his side.

“They’re not doing as well as they would like but they’ve got a talented group of players, and maybe coming away from home there may be less pressure for them,” said the former Liverpool manager.

Sunday’s match will be the first of eight for Leicester in December — a month which also includes games against Manchester City and Liverpool.

“We know that at some point we are going to have change to keep the energy in the team, but I’m not looking at Watford on Wednesday until after the Everton game,” said Rodgers.

“We’ve got a great sports scientist this season and we’ve got a fully fit squad going into this run.”