You needed to be there, in the Liverpool media conference room, on a June afternoon seven years ago, to witness the way Brendan Rodgers’ gets to the soul of a new place and lifts it.
It was not a happy time. Kenny Dalglish had not accomplished all that Anfield wished for him after his return as manager but, within minutes of embarking on an inaugural appearance as his successor, Rodgers had created an effortless elision of his future and the club’s rich past.
The reference to his becoming the club’s second Northern Irish manager — as if the name of John McKenna, Liverpool’s first, should be assumed knowledge — was as deft as the way he drew a common identity around the city and his ‘roots back home’ in Carnlough, on the Antrim coast.
When all is said and done about this season’s Leicester phenomenon — and there is much to say — Rodgers’ capacity to inspire individuals and take them to new heights is a significant factor.
He has shrewdly framed this season as being about the memory of the late Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, whose vision has put the club where it stands.
Winning builds more momentum than anything, of course, but somehow Vichai’s presence seems everywhere around the King Power now. There is something beyond the emotional under development, though.
Rodgers does have a reputation for creating personal attachments by understanding the lives of his players so well.
‘We loved him to death,’ Garry Monk said shortly after Rodgers had left Swansea for Anfield.
Yet Leicester’s players are responding most of all to the same detailed technical critique he would apply at Anfield.
When Steven Gerrard came to him and said he felt he was failing in his attacking midfield role, Rodgers had a computer printout laid out within a few hours, detailing strengths and weakness in his previous few games.
They delved into the negatives by watching video clips together and came to realise something as obscure as Gerrard’s head movement being askew. So they worked on that.
Leicester’s players feel he is improving them, too.
It is no coincidence Ben Chilwell, Wilfred Ndidi, Ricardo Pereira, Youri Tielemans, James Maddison, Caglar Soyuncu and Jamie Vardy are all operating at a level they did not reach under Rodgers’ predecessor Claude Puel.
Soyuncu is less impulsive, capitalising on his ball-playing ability as Rodgers asks Leicester to play out more.
Vardy is conserving more energy, limiting his sprints but finishing even more clinically than three years ago.
Ndidi is making substantially more tackles and covering more distance, topping Opta’s Premier League charts for both tackling and interceptions.
So, too, Pereira — second and eight respectively in those two charts — and operating with an intensity Puel never generated.
Chilwell and Pereira are finding more dangerous attacking positions than before.
Tielemans is finding Vardy far more. With Ayoze Perez and Demarai Gray adding substantially to the attacking threat, this is a better, more multi-dimensional team than the one which clinched the 2016 title by repelling opponents and striking through flashes of individual brilliance.
Claudio Ranieri’s side did not control games from the first whistle in this way.
Puel did launch Chilwell, Gray and Hamza Choudhury along the road by putting faith in them, though the club’s director of football Jon Rudkin has emerged as a key figure in the construction of a squad who lie eight points behind Liverpool in second place after Sunday’s 4-1 rout at Aston Villa.
In a recent interview, Jonny Evans described Rudkin arriving at the offices of his agent, Colin Murdock, with a huge ring binder crammed with detailed reports on Evans’ performances over the previous four seasons, including ratings for each game.
Player and agent were impressed. Evans joined for £3.5 million in June 2018. A steal.
There was also the long, tough bargaining with Monaco this summer for Tielemans. Manchester United were an option for the Belgian had Paul Pogba left for Real Madrid but Leicester’s clarity saw the 22-year-old instruct his agent that he wanted that move. It happened for £32m, £8m less than the asking price. Another steal.
Vardy’s contribution is all the more extraordinary considering Puel had started to phase him out.
‘Sometimes he is like a child,’ Puel said of the 32-year-old in an interview last weekend. ‘He needs support. He needs attention.’
Whether it is Gerrard or Vardy, Rodgers would view that as a professional opportunity.
And Leicester are reaping the rewards.