Robert Huth: Rodgers still the man to lead Leicester; discusses memories of title-winning season

Robert Huth helped Leicester to a sensational Premier League title in 2016 and in an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, the German centre-back discussed his memories of that season and his thoughts on Foxes boss Brendan Rodgers.

Welbeck’s late header v Arsenal made by blood boil

I still feel angry about the way we lost that game against Arsenal in 2016. Simmo [Danny Simpson] got sent off for a shocking second yellow. There must have been so many of those fouls throughout the game where no one got booked. You just lose it at decisions like that; there was steam coming out of my head.

We managed to hang in there until the very end and that stupid free-kick we gave away which they scored from. They’re all running off and celebrating, and all you want to do is just start a fight with someone because you’re so annoyed with what’s just happened. It’s part of the game but it doesn’t make it any easier.

I think we could have gone five points clear if we’d won that game. Instead Arsenal closed the gap on us. We’d got in our heads in the build-up that we were so desperate to win that game, and that’s something we never did throughout that season. That’s why we were all so fuming afterwards. The game ends and you’ve got all these Arsenal players running past you, jumping up and down. My blood was boiling.

Just about recovered from the arsenal battle the other night #playon 🚑 pic.twitter.com/YS2cxSjN3s

— robert huth (@robert_huth) April 28, 2017

And then we had an international break for two weeks, so there wasn’t a chance for us to go and put things right immediately. I needed to let off some steam in the dressing room. I was ready to take on the whole stadium. The whole atmosphere in the changing room was terrible, we were all just absolutely fuming.

You lose many games, many in the last minute, but for some reason that one really hurt us. I wouldn’t say it was a low point, because you do learn to deal with defeats. Late goals are always tough to take, and we’d felt hard done by with the sending-off. Without sounding disrespectful, if you don’t play sport, you don’t get it.

But that combination of us feeling hard done by with a couple of decisions from the referee, us not being completely with it and focused, and being a little bit Spursy for the day, it all led to that defeat. Ultimately it was up to us to defend that last set-piece and we didn’t.

Arsenal selfie was our team WhatsApp picture for a while – it’s not the reason we won the title, but it helped

We obviously all saw Arsenal’s celebrations after they beat us on that day, and I always think back to something Tony Pulis used to say to us at Stoke: Don’t over-celebrate in sport if the job isn’t completely done, because it will always come back to bite you.

Sports psychology is just the strangest thing because at times the slightest thing can wind you up and get to you. You don’t want to give any team an advantage or any fuel. It’s why you never hear Pep Guardiola or any of the other greats come out and say something like ‘yeah we’re going to beat these today’.

So when you see something like that from Arsenal on that day, that over-celebrating just gives you an edge. Listen, they had the right to celebrate, of course they did, but sometimes it can go a little too far, and that’s what gets to you when you’re on the receiving end.

And then we had that picture of them in the dressing room as our WhatsApp picture for a long, long time. I don’t remember who put it in there but we had it there just to spur us on.

It’s not the main reason we went on to win the title, but it certainly helped us.

THAT night at Jamie Vardy’s… Chelsea got one back and we’re all sat there going ‘here we go, Spurs will do a Spurs again!’

I think everyone associated with the club went out on the night we won the Premier League. Obviously looking back it was an awesome ending for us but things really didn’t start well. I’d just had the news that I was going to be suspended for the next couple of games; I’d heard that news as I was on my way over to [Jamie] Vardy’s house. All of a sudden I’m just fearing the worst… ‘we’re five points ahead, what have you done?!’ I wouldn’t have been there to help if things went wrong, so I was just praying Chelsea would help us out.

I get to Vardy’s place and all of the lads are excited, we’re dreaming about what would happen if things went our way, but before we’d even had our first beer Chelsea were 2-0 down. Very quickly we’d gone from ‘we’re going to do it’ to ‘s***, we’re going to have to toughen up and win our next two games.’

You know when you fear the worst about something, and all of these thoughts are going through your head? I’m sitting there thinking Spurs are winning 2-0, I’m suspended, we’re going to lose the next two games, we’re going to lose the title and it’s all going to be on me. It was horrible.

But obviously what happened, happened, Chelsea got one back and the atmosphere in the house had changed. I never felt confident in Chelsea at all throughout that day until they made it 2-1. When they scored for 2-1, we’re all sat there going “here we go, Spurs will do a Spurs again!”, we’re trying to give each other confidence. After Gary Cahill makes it 2-1, I just knew something was going to happen and the ball was going to drop our way.

The Eden Hazard goal which ended Tottenham's title hopes in 2016 🏆

📺 Watch Chelsea vs Spurs LIVE this Sunday on Sky Sports 📺

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 21, 2022

Eden Hazard scored that unbelievable goal to make it 2-2, and then there was some magnificent time-wasting from Chelsea at the end to win us the title. When that final whistle went, we just went crazy. It changed everyone’s life. The club’s global perspective changed in an instant, it was an awesome thing to be a part of.

If you’re asking me about a Leicester City movie and who’d play me, it’s got to be Ivan Drago from the Rocky movies, Dolph Lundgren!

Brendan Rodgers is STILL the right man for the Leicester job

Brendan Rodgers is still the right man to turn things around at Leicester, for sure. The last couple of results haven’t been ideal at all, let’s not beat around the bush. But the players that are there are his players. They’re not playing terribly bad at the moment, it’s just simple mistakes that have cost us.

We’ve played some tough games already, not to sound like I’m making excuses, but we’ve already played Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United and Tottenham in our first seven games. But, of course, the longer you stay at the bottom, of course the pressure is going to increase on you.

But after this international break, we’ve got – not an easy game at all – a massive one against Nottingham Forest and then a run of games in which we can hopefully pick up points. Monday night is massive for us, it’s under the lights, it’s live on TV. It’s a derby, the pressure is on and it’s up to the lads to deliver.

Let’s not forget this is a long-term project – you can’t just think about the short-term all the time. Taking everything into consideration, transfers, certain players leaving, the atmosphere is still good around the place, the players are still performing to a level which isn’t concerning to me. They’ve not thrown in the towel, players are still tracking back.

I do think Brendan is the right guy. A couple of wins and they’re out of the bottom three. Wins breed wins and that has to start on Monday night. Three points against Forest and all of a sudden you’re climbing up the table and confidence is back.