Brendan Rodgers has the chance to stick knives in Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp

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Brendan Rodgers has had three chances to stick to his successors Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool since he was fired as manager in October 2015. He has appeared scarce and miserably three times.

Although Rodgers was nearing the end of his top drought in 2013-14, which Klopp finally did last season, Rodgers’ reputation at Anfield was hurt. Spitting with Raheem Sterling in an unfortunate television documentary from 2012 and the failed signing of Mario Balotelli are just two examples. At the first sign of trouble, the club fired him and he had to restore his reputation – first at Celtic and now at Leicester.

Fast forward to now and Rodgers is 0-3 against his former employer. The Foxes were pitted at Anfield in October 2019 but were nearly defeated in a tie before James Milner’s time penalty misled a noisy local crowd.

Brendan Rodgers (left) and Jürgen Klopp hug each other before they meet on Boxing Day in 2019

The Leicester players celebrate their second goal in their path to defeating Chelsea last month

Twice since it was a procession for Liverpool, seven goals have been scored and conceded to zero. Leicester was wiped out at home on Boxing Day 2019 when the newly crowned world champions returned home to reaffirm their domestic dominance.

And in November Leicester was routinely sent to Merseyside despite being high on the table.

Klopp extensively praised the champions that evening: “It was very much [satisfying]because we deserved it 100 percent and the guys played an incredible game against a top-top opponent. If I play like I did tonight, I don’t take it for granted.

‘The boys were on fire – football-wise – played and played and played. Jamie Vardy was much lower than last season which made it more difficult as we also had to get Gini (Wijnaldum) in possession.

‘How the entire team defended from the front was incredible. We should have scored more goals and that’s a great sign of a good game. ‘

But Rodgers will know ahead of Saturday’s lunchtime showdown that he’s never had a better chance of breaking his duck against his former employers, whom he hasn’t had any success since his last game for Swansea in May 2012.

There will always be the “what if” with its magic in Anfield. They were at the top of the league with three games remaining in the 2013-14 season but screwed it up. Some of his methods have also been criticized from a micromanagement perspective. At the start of the 2012/13 season, Rodgers copied a Sir Alex Ferguson mind game used almost 20 years earlier – and it failed when Liverpool went down 3-0 on the first day of the season.

The then Reds boss showed his team three envelopes and included the names of three players who will leave us in the lurch this year.

Ferguson had done this in 1993 to make sure his squad couldn’t get their first title win in two decades – but later found the envelopes were empty. A year later, Rodgers revealed that the envelopes never contained names.

The manager’s conversation didn’t seem to convince Steven Gerrard, who was watching with his head on his arms.

Rodgers will hope Liverpool players will have a similar feeling on Saturday afternoon at King Power Stadium.

Jürgen Klopp’s team collapsed after they glued seven to Crystal Palace and confirmed a third Christmas in a row at the top of the table. Injuries have overtaken them and confidence has faded during a relentless series of games.

Klopp shows his fear on the contact line during Liverpool’s recent poor form

Liverpool slipped from the top of the table at Christmas and fought for fourth place

Losing four of their last seven, they are now in a battle for fourth place, with Manchester City running away with the league title.

Leicester are three points clear and are beginning to seriously believe they can finish in the top four this season after being excruciatingly short last year.

Building on an impressive win over Chelsea last month with a positive result and a performance against Liverpool, Rodgers could be just the thing to prevent his Leicester side from imploding for a second straight season.

The shape of the foxes was curious, however. With every conspicuous victory there is one or the other surprising one. West Ham, Aston Villa, Fulham, Everton and Leeds have all bid farewell to the King Power this season with three points.

Teams that play against Leicester usually have room to enjoy themselves. And Liverpool, having encountered such trouble against the lower block of the sides of the table, could well enjoy that freedom.