Post match review: Leicester 1-0 Liverpool
A frustrating night at the King Power stadium then, as a patched up Leicester side beat our sluggish red men after scoring with their only shot on target in the entire match.
All seemed to be going to plan in the early stages as we asserted our dominance and when Salah won a penalty, its was all going to script. After an extremely poor penalty from Mo and the subsequent missed rebound however, it lifted the home crowd and we struggled for any kind of rhythm in the game after that.
Klopp referenced the “funny story” of the manager who was moaning about having two games in 48 hours, ended up losing to a team who had played twice in that time, after we’d had a nine day break. I mentioned to Matty on the match thread however, that that rarely seems to benefit us. Whenever we have a couple of weeks between games, we tend to look sluggish our first game back and last night was no different as our boys looked downright leggy, even though they had no reason to be. Under Klopp we’ve always played our most consistent football when we’ve a game every 3-4 days. Breaks make me wary and unfortunately last night became one of those nights.
The goal we conceded was frustrating as well. The way Trent and Hendo just jogged back while Lookman drove in on goal was absolutely criminal and not something you associate with them, Hendo in particular but there was no urgency whatsoever from either of them to get back and help, Matip on a yellow card was afraid to commit and I’m not quite sure what Virgil was trying to do.
These things happen however and more often than not our fearsome attack dig us out of the hole but it just wasn’t happening last night, between Salah’s penalty, Mane’s woeful effort when clean through on goal and Jota, although he had a couple of half chances, had a quiet night. Mane’s form is becoming something of a concern again, I think he’s now gone over 13 hours without a goal. Mane’s a confidence player as we know and to have not even hit the target with that chance last night, looked a player who’s confidence in front of goal isn’t at its highest, to say the least.
One of the few positives of the evening was Kostas, who I thought had another very good game and continues to look a very shrewd signing. I’m struggling for much more however, as we just had one of those nights all over the pitch, where nothing really clicked for us and as tends to be the way in these games, we were punished by the opposition’s only shot on target.
Where does that leave us in the title race then? We’re currently 6 points behind, which against any normal opposition wouldn’t seem insurmountable, however against this City team and the incredible levels of consistency they have, it’s left us with practically zero margin for error for the rest of the campaign.
One thing I will say is that unlike ourselves and Chelsea (who have lost another two players to injury in the first half against Brighton) who have had significant issues with injury and covid already this season, City are yet to experience that and in this congested, covid rife world we currently live in, you would imagine they’ll have some issues in that regard before the season is done. They are also however, the team most capable of dealing with it in terms of squad depth.
So we lost our second game of the season (cue fan meltdown) but if I’m being honest, I always felt perhaps the league was a step too far this season. There is an endless back and forth amongst the fans of whether we have sufficient squad depth. Many feel we should have replaced Gini and added to our attack with AFCON looming, others feel the emergence of Harvey and Curtis mean we didn’t need to add to the squad. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Curtis and Harvey both have what it takes to replace Gini in the squad but are probably not quite there yet. The only way they get there though, is to give them game time. If we’d signed a Gini replacement, when do these players get their game time? I said on the match thread last night, the kids are either good enough or they’re not and we just need to trust the manager on that one. As for attack, I think we thought Origi and possibly Mini would move on last summer. They didn’t and therefore there’s simply no room in the squad for another attacking signing.
To that end, I always felt the league was going to be a big ask this season. While we’re capable of it no doubt and are still right in the hunt this season, I just felt with Gini leaving, Virgil needing to get back up to speed and the introduction of Elliot, it may take this season for the changes within the squad to gel and the kids to develop. The Champions league however is a different story and I make us firm favourites for the competition. A return leg at Anfield is almost unfair on the opposition. Almost. The final is a one off game that anything can happen in but of all the teams left in the competition, I fancy us to make the final more than anyone. Our style and intensity are perfectly suited to tournament football and the Anfield factor means we’re the one side in Europe I guarantee nobody wants.
Anyway, squad depth, injuries etc had nothing to do with last night’s result. Robbo and Thiago aside, we were at full strength against a Leicester side decimated by injury and leaking goals for fun. It should have been a straightforward win but we weren’t good enough, simple as that. It happens. No need for knee jerking, stewards enquiries, finger pointing, blaming owners etc. What, because we lost one game?
All you can ask is we have a team that is competitive with the best in the world which we have. You can’t plan for every missed penalty, every off night, nights like last night happen. They’ve happened before and will happen again. What we should be grateful for is that they happen to us so infrequently. It’s done and we move onto the next one. Walk on!
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