Brendan Rodgers Admits He Made a Mistake by Leaving Hamza Choudhury Out of Carabao Cup Semi-Final

​Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted he was wrong to leave midfielder Hamza Choudhury out his starting lineup against Aston Villa in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

With Leicester 1-0 down, Choudhury was introduced at half-time as the Foxes went on to equalise in the 74th minute, through a move started by the 22-year-old winning possession on the halfway line.

Hamza Choudhury,Marvelous Nakamba

With holding midfielder Wilfred Ndidi ruled out shortly before kick-off, Rodgers opted to play a relatively attacking three-man midfield of James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Dennis Praet, leaving the more defensively-minded Choudhury on the bench.

Asked whether he should have started Choudhury, Rodgers said: "Yes, that’s my fault," as quoted by the ​Mail

"We dominated first half but weren’t fast enough with the ball, our biggest problem was our pressing," Rodgers added. "We were not aggressive enough, which is down to me as Wilf got taken out of the game at the last minute because of an injury.

Hamza Choudhury,Marvelous Nakamba

The Northern Irish manager continued: "The decision was either to put Hamza in or maybe put in another ball-player in because we were going to have a lot of the ball. Youri Tielemans did fine but we were too passive.

"We came into the game in the second half with a couple of changes and we were different team."

The second substitution ​Leicester made also proved to be decisive as ​Kelechi Iheanacho scored the equaliser just five minutes after replacing Ayoze Pérez.

Kelechi Iheanacho

The Foxes could be without their midfield stalwart Ndidi for up to a month as the Nigerian international requires surgery on a knee injury he picked up before the match against ​Villa

However, if Choudhury can replicate the level of performance which has left his manager regretting leaving him on the bench, the Foxes may not miss Ndidi as much as they thought.


Source : 90min