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The Leicester City squad have to learn to pull up the landing gear and avoid dropping in for a mid-table finish, manager Brendan Rodgers has said.

Members of the City squad are conditioned to focus on the 40-point tally that secures Premier League survival, Rodgers believes. Without a change in mentality, that can lead to a fall in form that sees a side stumble to the finish line.

City are already on 50 points, but have taken just 12 from the last 33 available to them, and Rodgers said his players are learning what they must do to avoid a significant drop in altitude.

“For a lot of the players, it’s new,” Rodgers said after his side’s 1-0 loss to Manchester City.

“It’s a club that for the majority of the time, once you got to 40 points, the wheels are out and everyone’s landing. Staying in the division was important, and for a lot of the players that’s how it’s been.

“To sustain it and be up there from the third week in that top four, it’s new for a lot of the players. They’ve coped with it so well. They’re improving all the time. They’re going to get better in their stamina, both physically and mentally, over time.

“To be in the position we are in with 11 games to go, I’d have bit your hand off at the beginning of the season.

“Of course we wanted to cut it to one point [to second place], but if the only teams above you are Liverpool and Man City, you’re doing okay for a club that nobody realistically believed could arrive in there.

“We’ve done very well but we have to refocus now. We’re disappointed, we should have taken something from [Saturday’s game], but now we move on.”

Leicester are still comfortably inside the Champions League places, and if they do finish inside the top four, a whole new learning process begins, with more high-quality competitions to juggle.

But Rodgers believes the experience of this season will be of a great benefit.

“It’s that mentality that you need,” said the City manager. “If you arrive into Europe next year, it’s totally different again. But it’s all experience and that helps you.

“This season will be a huge benefit to the players knowing what it takes to be up there. Up to now, they’ve shown they’ve been good enough to do that, and that’s something that will help us going forward.”