Leicester
City 2 Liverpool 0
Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)
Pre-match: Leicester will really be looking
for revenge tonight after we beat them at home on Boxing Day. It hurts the soul
to say we're underdogs against Leicester, but we are. They are deserving of
their top spot, achieving consistency where no one else in the league has. Hope
it continues tonight, particularly with two winnable (not that this word has
any meaning for us) games against Sunderland and Aston Villa coming up.
Early
pressure from Leicester, as Mahrez unleashes a shot from outside of the box
just wide of the far post. We got a bit lucky there as Mahrez has punished
other teams from similar situations often this season.
Emre Can
unleashes a shot from outside the box of his own, not nearly as dangerous as
Mahrez's.
Well, we
criticize Mignolet a lot for his recent tendency to let in saveable shots
(particularly first shots on target) but he just came up with a HUGE save there
from an Okazaki close-range header off a Vardy cross.
This is
an open game so far, with both teams looking dangerous from open play. Given
how deadly the Foxes are in front of goal, I'm not sure this suits our game.
Shortly after Leicester's big chance, we come up with another of our own, with
Can getting a free header on goal, but is flagged offside.
We earn a
few early corners and take all of them short. Not the worst strategy considering
Milner's lacklustre deliveries and also the fact there is no Benteke in the
area but we should have tried a couple of times to at least test their defence.
After
some early shakiness, we have done well to start dominating on both sides of
the ball. As usual, that dominance has not resulted in……(you guessed it….. no
goals for us !!!)
We finally
take their 6th corner long, but the result is the same.
Mignolet
with another great save from a long, curling but accurate strike from Mahrez.
Perhaps that new contract and penalty shoot-out win was all the confidence he
needed!
Another
moment of classic Mignolet indecisiveness that thankfully doesn't result in a
goal for a change.
Moreno makes
a complete balls up of a great opportunity. Firmino sets the left back through
on goal, and with four other Liverpool players in the box, Moreno puts the ball
about 30 rows deep into the stands. Very poor decision-making and execution by
the young fullback.
Halftime: A decent half from the Reds. A
disastrous early start was avoided by some excellent goalkeeping from Simon
Mignolet, but we couldn't even come close to converting any chances on the
other end. Believe it or not, Mignolet saved all four shots on target so far.
Despite earning 8 corners and generally looking dangerous, Firmino & Co.
have yet to get a shot on target of their own. Our best effort so far was a
dangerous cross that was nearly turned in for an own goal off a dangerous
clearing header from Fuchs.
Some of
the best interplay we've seen from our side this season, resulting in a low
shot from Can from about 12 yards which was turned away for a corner. Still,
encouraging stuff to start the second half. Just felt he could have done better
with that chance.
GOAL - Vardy
just hit a first-time volley from 25 yards out and a narrow angle after a great
60 yard pass over the top from the magical Mahrez. It was a goal that Suarez would
have been proud of. Absolutely nothing you can do about that one. Fantastic
strike. But it still sucks. 1-0 to the hosts.
We bring
on Benteke on for Henderson. Probably a good move. Henderson has looked off the
pace again tonight.
Leicester
continue to look dangerous, even if we continue to have the majority of the
possession. Again, just not enough in the final third. The hosts are playing
with all the confidence when they have the ball, continually driving forward
and getting into dangerous spots.
GOAL - Another for Vardy. Yet another calamitous
piece of defending by Sakho who lets a long ball bounce, and then Vardy beats
Lovren to a through ball and its an easy finish from there. We have had a lot
of late goals under Klopp, but I can't see it happening now with just 20
minutes left in the match.
The poor
Can comes off for Allen – who must feel slightly aggrieved to continue missing
out when the first team keeps losing.
The
second goal has deflated the team and we then bring on Texeira with 3 minutes
left which to me is pointless, some people may say that exhaustion finally
caught up with us tonight but I don’t agree with that as the youngsters have
been playing to enable the first teamers to rest and they seem to be resting on
the pitch.
Full
time: We needed
to be at their best to get a result tonight. And for the first 60 minutes, the
Reds were very close to that. Unfortunately, Vardy pulled a shot out of the
absolute top drawer, and after a second goal the Reds had given up the fight.
It was far from a shameful 2-0 loss (although, a little more fight back after
either goal would have been nice), but again, a misfiring attack meant that the
margin for error tonight was going to be exceedingly slim. The Redmen ended up
on the wrong side of things tonight, and Leicester continue clinging on to
their deserved spot at the top of the table.
Man of
the match – Mignolet – just for the saves he made in the first half as no other
LFC player stood out throughout the game.
Leicester
(4-4-1-1): Schmeichel; Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez (Ulloa 90), Kante,
Drinkwater, Albrighton (Gray 80); Okazaki (King 87); Vardy
Subs not
used: Ulloa, Dyer, Wasilewski, Chilwell, Schwarzer
Liverpool
(4-1-2-3): Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Lucas; Henderson (Benteke 67),
Can (Allen 75); Milner, Firmino (Teixeira 87), Lallana
Subs not
used: Toure, Ibe, Flanagan, Ward
Booked:
Lucas
Att: 32,121
Andre Marriner.
Positives
– Klopp can now surely see which players are not going to be with us next
season as this was another listless performance by players such as Milner,
Lallana and the lack of pace by Lovren was so poor that surely those three are
just three of the players that are not good enough for the level were will be
aspiring to next season.
Negatives
– Lovren’s lack of pace versus Vardy and the poor creativity of all our
midfielders was shocking and despite having the majority of the possession what
matters in football is putting the ball in the back of the net and we are
extremely poor at doing that without Daniel Sturridge.
Manager
briefly commented that we made the wrong decisions in the attacking side of the
pitch – got beat by a world class goal but is disappointed tonight.
As Man
City have their best goal scorer on the pitch we need to get ours injury prone Daniel
Sturridge back on the pitch as without him this season we are again a poor side
in the final third – Sturridge is supposed to start training from tomorrow
fingers crossed he can be on the bench for us this weekend vs Sunderland.
As for
our hopes of top 4 they are finished for another year as we are now 11 points
behind 4th place Arsenal.
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