So that’s that - thanks all for your company and comments. Night.
A brilliant performance from Leicester, who did what they used to do, which, in the absence of Claudio Ranieri, they have now started doing again. From the off, they harried and hassled Liverpool, but most importantly of all, they played to their strengths, namely the pace of Jamie Vardy. He’s had barely any service this season, but tonight they hit him as early as they could as often as they could, and he responded with two expertly taken finishes, sandwiching a finish for the ages from Danny Drinkwater. They move up to 15th in the table and will surely now survive.
The least said about Liverpool the better - they were sluggish, predictable and disorganise, so stay 5th, a point behind Arsenal and a point ahead of Manchester United, both of whom have played a game less.
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Full-time: Leicester City 3-1 Liverpool
Well x3.
90+5 min Fuchs, 50 yards out, sees Mignolet off his line and lofts an audacious shot that Mignolet judges to perfection, jumping in case before letting it pass centimetres over the bar.
90+4 min Liverpool have given up. And I don’t mean that they’ve tossed it off, just that they’ve accepted their fate.
90+3 min Davie Provan names James Vardy man-of-the-match, which is fair enough, but Drinkwater, Albrighton, Fuchs and Ndidi have all also been excellent.
90+2 min James Vardy is very tired.
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90 min There shall be five added minutes; Chilwell replaces Albrighton.
90 min As far as job interview go, this is a pretty strong one from Craig Playwright.
88 min Again, Liverpool push down their right, and again, Fuchs is on hand, blocking Clyne’s corner behind. The corner is wasted, and Leicester break with Gray; he teases Moreno inside and out, but the defenders does just enough to win the ball back.
87 min Clyne turns a cross across the face of the box, and Coutinho swivels into it. He doesn’t catch it properly, but for no apparent reason, Schmeichel palms it behind from around his toes. Ndidi, though, heads the corner away well.
86 min Origin finds Firmino, who sends a pass down the right, in behind Albrighton. But Fuchs was in quickly and strongly - he’s had a really good game tonight.
84 min Change for Liverpool: Woodburn replaces Lucas. Is there any truth in the rumour that he wears number 58 in tribute to Wales’ 1958 World Cup efforts?
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83 min Vardy and Wijnaldum contest a high ball off the goalkick, the former heading the latter. Both receive treatment.
81 min Leicester are defending like a team who know they daren’t concede again, but Liverpool are not really attacking in similar vein. They win a corner, though, which goes past the back post to be retrieved by Matip, who rolls back for Clyne. The ensuing cross is a goodun too, but Lucas can only head wide of the far post.
79 min Drinkwater should crown it! Lovely play from Mahrez, skirting around the outside of Can and advancing along the line and shins meets heels - he could go down and probably win a penalty, but instead tees up Drinkwater, who, with a clear sight of goal, smacks a sidefooter just over the top. Mahrez is then replaced by Gray.
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77 min Incidentally, in response to all the emails about the Leicester players not putting it in for Ranieri, I’m not sure it’s a cognitive thing. If you’re confident in what you’re doing, you’ll subconsciously run harder and play with greater intensity, and that’s what we’re seeing tonight.
76 min Leicester ping the ball across the back four as Liverpool hunt it down, only for Ndidi to welease Mahwez down the right. Liverpool appear to be playing with more intensity than before, but aren’t exactly peppering Schmeichel’s goal.
73 min Ah. Do excuse me, but I forgot to note that after the Liverpool goal, Amartey replaced Okazaki. I don’t think we’ll see much pressing from Leicester.
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72 min Liverpool prompt around the box, before one long clearance puts Mignolet in a race with Vardy - Mignolet gets to the ball first, just.
70 min “I guess this game answers the question what happens when a heavy pressing team meets a counter attacking team... well, this game and the Man City one,” notes Benjamin Park.
Yes, in a way - Leicester have gone long where necessary to get rid of the press, though Liverpool also haven’t been as energetic as usual.
GOAL! Leicester City 3-1 Liverpool (Coutinho 68)
This is a fine goal. Can lollops through midfield and plays a one-two with Moreno outside him. He then carries the ball towards the box and nudges it infield to Coutinho, who takes an excellent first touch before snapping a low, hard finish across Schmeichel and into the bottom-left corner, with tghe inside of his right foot.
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66 min Double change for Liverpool: Mane and Lallana go off, Moreno and Origi come on.
65 min Ah, Lallana! He takes the ball from Mane and comes in off the right, feeding Firmino, who backheels back into his path. Suddenly, there’s an angle for a shot, which he twists into, sending it just past the near post.
64 min “Ranieri to Liverpool?” chortles Gary Naylor. I wonder what Klopp thinks about his defence.
62 min Has anyone seen Adam Lallana?
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GOAL! Leicester City 3-0 Liverpool (Vardy 60)
This is now a kicking! Mahrez receives the ball closes to the corner flag, and there looks nothing on ... before he and Fuchs absolutely work Clyne, a succession of passes opening the lane for a cross, which Fuchs measures to perfection. And there, in the middle, is Vardy, nodding down firmly to secure the points! Well!
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58 min “Following up to your answer to Josh’s comment about Klopp’s selections,” emails Venkata Subramanian. ‘Not being a Liverpool fan, I don’t follow all their news very keenly. But I believe he could have brought in some players to play based on his system. I am not sure why the idea of ‘Klopp is working wonders with a weak squad’ keeps getting trotted out, when it is up to the manager to identify weaknesses and sort out tactics etc.”
I’m fairly sure Klopp would’ve liked to strengthen in January - that he didn’t probably wasn’t his fault. And he bought fairly well last summer - Wijnaldum and Mane have done well, Matip semi-well. But without budget, it’s difficult to find elite players.
57 min Mane escapes Fuchs and stretches away, attacking Huth who shows him inside onto his left foot. The ensuing shot is dragged, but wins a corner - it comes to nothing.
57 min Decent ball in from Milndini, and Mane is up, but so too is Morgan, and the ball sails clear.
55 min Mane fights his way across the face of the box to find Coutinho, but he’s accosted by any number of blue shirts - let’s say 17 - before he can get the backswing necessary to sling in one of his curlers.
53 min “Re: Josh Sutherland’s comment,” says Peter Oh, “Klopp’s hand was forced a bit with Henderson picking up a foot injury in training, hence Can. And with Lovren also on the injured list, Lucas is deputising in defence, although I’m not sure why Klavan didn’t get the nod.”
Turns out that buying players on the basis of a useful tournament performance doesn’t always work.
51 min Liverpool are starting to push - their defensive line seems a little higher, condensing the play inside the Leicester half. But then a lovely touch and turn from Okazaki, followed by a long pass out to Vardy on the left, shows the danger of the change. On this occasion, though, he has no support, so when he crosses, an exhausted Okazaki is easily seen away by Matip.
50 min Ndidi looked a decent player when I saw him in the flesh a few weeks ago, and he’s played well tonight; he chases Milner into the corner, robs him, and clears down the line.
48 min “I’m not trying to make excuses for Liverpool’s absolutely terrible performance,” says Matthew Turner, “but I guess it could be mentioned that the squad went away for a vacation but is still playing with a makeshift backline and an unsettled midfield. Why Liverpool barely have one string of useful players is another question...”
Yes - there do not appear to many managers around able to spot a defender and organise a back four.
46 min On first perusal, I can see no cuts and bruises - perhaps Klopp went for body shots, noogies and purple nurples.
46 min We go again.
“Liverpool look out of sorts,” says Fred Lane. “Are these long winter breaks a good thing?”
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, yes in some ways but no in other ways, I’d guess - given how that’s the answer to pretty much every question in the world. We saw yesterday how a fortnight off helped Southampton, and we’ll see in the second half what Liverpool have got.
“Sorry,” begins Josh Sutherland, always a welcome opening to an email, especially in this line of work. “Klopp should be fired if he continues to select Can and Lucas in the middle of a defensive setup. He might be personable, but his team selection is proving to be as good as his finals record. And I’m a Liverpool fan. It is the players fault for such a poor performance/result, but it doesn’t help playing 2 men down all game.”
Can has ability, but is not a good fit for Klopp’s system. And if you look at Klopp’s squad, I’d say he’s done a pretty handy job with the materials made available to him, though he has, of course, made mistakes.
“Given that Shakespeare / Leicester made precisely one change I think it can safely be said that the problem did indeed lie with the players,” says Owen Linderholm.
Well, it’s the manager’s job to get the most out of them, and also the manager who was messing about with their style and formation. So I’m not sure it’s a simple as that.
Half-time correspondence: “Shakespeare appears to have come to bury Claudio, not to praise him,” tweets Gary Naylor.
Half-time advert break:
Half-time: Leicester City 2-0 Liverpool
Leicester have been excellent, playing with courage, conviction and speed; both goals have been absolutely excellent. Liverpool, on the other hand, have been and done none of the above.
45+2 min Liverpool try to salvage their faces, working the ball to Can, 20 yards out; he curves a low, deliberate shot towards the bottom corner, but Schmeichel is wise to it and shoves behind. The corner comes to nothing.
45 min There shall be two added minutes; or, put another way, the Liverpool players are 120 seconds away from a heavy metal, gegenpressed, jocular, avuncular, zany rousting.
44 min “How come Liverpool don’t have any world-class players like Jaime Vardy and Danny Drinkwater?” asks Matthew Turner.
Is this the beginning of a joke? To get to the other side? To see his flat mate? Liverpool could use a centre-forward, though.
42 min Liverpool have been abject.
40 min What was so special about that goal was the corner in which it ended up. Ordinarily, when striking a ball like that, the body shape takes it across the keeper and into the corner opposite the foot with which it was hit. But Drinkwater’s shot held somehow held its form and moved away from, rather than across the keeper, like a knuckleball.
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WHAAAAT A GOAAAAAAAL! Leicester City 2-0 Liverpool (Drinkwater 38)
Oh yes! Liverpool struggle to clear a corner, and when Albrighton hooks a cross back into the box, Milner heads clear. Drinkwater, 30 yards out allows the ball to bounce once, then flings his body into a half-turn, fully airborne by the time he wipes his foot across a shot that fizzes, hisses and screams away from Mignolet and in at the near post. Brilliant, brilliant hit.
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35 min “Politics of football, chapter 1:” emails Chris McVandi. “When to sack a popular manager. Wait for an important game against a worthy team. If you lose then so what, but if you win the the justification of the sacking becomes paramount. Quite genius I might add.”
And yet, sometimes, managers are sacked after thrashings off good teams. I remember Alex Ferguson taking umbrage after someone lost their job following a kicking from United - I think it was Roy Hodgson from Blackburn in 1998. Also noteworthy in this game: a set-to between Tim Sherwood and David Beckham, the former being sent-off.
And, tangentially, Hodgson later said as follows:
“Of course, my track record, if people bothered to study it, would put me in the same category as Ferguson enjoys today, but people don’t talk about what I’ve done outside England.”
34 min “More unnecessary Shakespeare puns,” volunteers Andreas, eagerly thumbing through his GCSE notes. “Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of Vardy?”
And theres’s the man himself - he’s looked lively tonight - racing onto Mahrez’s clever pass across the face of the box, backheeling into the path of Ndidi, who sidefoots formlyh and wide.
32 min “Liverpool still got their flip-flops on,” tweets Gary Naylor. I like flip-flops - with trainers, the only acceptable form of footwear - but I think the weather was not as clement as they had anticipated.
30 min Liverpool try and hit back right away, Mane into Wijnaldum, who immediately touches on to Firmino. He can’t quite take it into his stride - had he done, he was in - so the ball goes left to Coutinho. But Schmeichel is up in his grille right away, and he blocks the ball clear with relative ease.
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GOAL! Leicester City 1-0 Liverpool (Vardy, 28)
Pure, uncut Leicester! The ball bounces around on halfway, and then, when it arrives at the feet of Mark Albrighton, he slides a scrumptious pass into the path of Vardy, screeching down the inside-right channel. He takes his time, drawn Mignolet - it’s a pretty good likeness, too - then slides an expert’s finish low inside the near post. That’s Leicester’s first league goal this year!
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26 min “Did Leicester put Shakespeare in charge because their title defence this season has been a mix of comedy, tragedy and history?” boom-booms Nick Pettigrew.
I believe the Leicester plays discussed a collective tweet reading “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” is, but decided against it.
24 min Liverpool are trying to speed the game up, and Can gallumphs through midfield, helping create a shooting chance for Coutinho. But before the bend can take effect, a phalanx of bodies block him off, Huth absorbing the blow.
22 min “Nursing his curtains?” asks Mark Owens. “Not heard this one before, translation please.”
Curtains, a style of haircut famous through the 90s - explained in this Joy of Six - and nursing, looking after them.
20 min What a miss! Schmeichel drives along pass to Vardy who, on the half-turn, flicks the ball around the corner and around Lucas, putting himself through. But before he can shoot, he has to wait for it to come down, so rushes the shot, tickling it into the ground straight at Mignolet, before Matip heads behind. Naturally, the corner is wasted.
19 min Liverpool have struggled to get Coutinho into the game so far, but then Can shuffles through midfield and snaps a clever pass diagonal pass over the top, forcing Simpson to contort into a header behind. The corner comes to nowt.
18 min Ndidi pulls back Milner, giving Liverpool a free-kick on the left, 40 yards from goal. The ball goes square, where Coutinho lifts it into the box, only for it to drift behind.
16 min “Liverpool’s lineup boasts more than A Few Good Men,” emails the prolific Peter Oh. “I just hope that they can handle the Huth.
They are no Huth-handers, them.
14 min But here they are, forcing another corner - Mahrez defers to Albrighton, who stands it up for Huth at the far post, where a single step backwards is enough to lose Can. With plenty of time to see the ball coming, he leaps to butt well over the top. He was a fair way out, so it wasn’t a good chance, but he ought to have got a bit closer than he did.
12 min Leicester have slowed down already - or at least during these last three or so minutes, easily long enough to reach a definitive conclusion about matter far more complex.
10 min Liverpool knock it about midfield and then Matip eases forward, shimmying past Mahrez, and then Mane and Lallana turn Leicester’s right flank, the former crossing low and forcing Ndidi to slide behind to prevent Firmino from tapping in. The corner forces another, following which Matip is penalised for nudging Huth.
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9 min “English football is idiotically physical,” emails Mike Richardson. “Vardy stamps directly down, hard, onto Mane’s foot, and then crashes a knee into Mane’s leg. Oh well. Throw in to Leicester.”
I disagree with the opening sentiment - I enjoy the tussles - and on that particular challenge, I’d need to see it again, but it looked like a follow-through to me. I’m probably wrong.
8 min Liverpool have barely mustered a kick thus far - ah, but there’s Mane landing one on Ndidi’s calf. He wears it well.
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7 min Leicester maintain the pressure, Okazaki throwing his neck from behind him to connects with a ball kicking off the turf after Vardy miscues a shot. Mignolet pushes it behind, and the corner comes to nowt.
5 min Leicester have started well, as struggling teams often do - the problem is what happens when they don’t get anywhere. Anyway, they win a throw down the left, hurled in my Albrighton, and Huth flicks a header goalwards, which forces Mignolet to dirty his knees.
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4 min Leicester win a corner down the right and Huth peels off to the back post, winning the knock-down as Mahrez strays offside and Ndidi wellies over the bar.
3 min “Klopp’s heavy metal meets post-Claudius lute-plucking Shakespeare,” enthuses Peter Oh. “This is high drama!”
1 min Vardy, on the left touchline, nips back along the line as Lallana waves him by, and overrunning the ball, lunges after it and lands a right sair yin on Mane’s laces. There’s a pause while he receives treatment and Jurgen Klopp shakes his head in disappointment.
1 min Leicester kick-off and get the ball forward right away; the clappers approve.
Leicester huddle and why not; they’ve probably not done enough talking these last few days.
Oh my. A grown man is holding an actual laminated portrait photo of Ranieri. Oh my.
There are various banners in the ground thanking Ranieri, and at least one calling the players a “disgrace”, yet to be entirely usurped by “fraud” as football’s insult of choice.
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Here come the players: the ball is deplinthed, the players line up, and IMPORTANCE is happening.
As for how this game might go, it’s hard to see how Leicester can compete in midfield, and how their defence can handle the movement and invention of Liverpool’s front three. However, hope is at hand in the shape of a back five that rarely keeps clean sheets. A prediction: Leicester 1-3 Liverpool.
“Your mate,” Stuart Goodacre begins hopefully, “should have been asking Marin O’Neill to pass on other questions to her dad - you do know that Mr O’Neill is an authority on the Hanratty murder and other infamous UK crimes. Plus, whilst he was still playing, he attended Peter Sutcliffe’s trial in the public gallery.”
My mate was indeed a lawyer, though he was more interested in nursing his curtains. The 90s were so good.
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“I think it makes sense to change the scenery,” says Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool’s jaunt overseas. He also admits culpability for Liverpool’s enforced break.
And there’s also this:
This #LEILIV thriller from 1999 had it all 🎢
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 27, 2017
Will we get a repeat tonight? pic.twitter.com/CHXRdAep2O
For balance:
Remember this cracker from @vardy7?! 💥 #LEILIV pic.twitter.com/HZYJ0aF98A
— Premier League (@premierleague) February 27, 2017
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Email! “Hello from a Liverpool fan,” begins Peter Oh, “who tried hard to ignore any news about United’s silverware yesterday and instead focused on the goldenware being handed out to the envelope-pushers of the film world. From my perspective, both the EFL Cup Final and the Oscars had confusing, unsatisfying endings. I could sure use a good thrashing of Unwavering Support FC to revive the magic of football. As for film, the less said about Jamie Vardy The Movie the better.”
A late winner for United, confusing?
That same mate tells me that Fuchs is gone, and that Chilwell should be in ahead of him. If so, he’s in for a tricky night against Sadio Mane.
He played for Leicester while I was at university - a university also attended by Martin O’Neill’s daughter. So, periodically, she would receive emails from a Leicester-supporting friend of mine, saying things like “Please tell your dad not to sell Heskey.” If only he’d known to add “and not spend the money on Akinbiyi, Richard Cresswell and Trevor Benjamin,” things could have been so different.
Apparently, Jamie Vardy poked one home in this fixture last season, but true connoisseurs know that there is only one finisher whose name will be forever synonymous with it: the one, the only, Adeola Oluwatoyin “Ade” Akinbiyi.
Craig Shakespeare explains that he’s gone for a team which is “tried and tested”, making only one change from midweek: Okazaki replaces Musa, who isn’t even on the bench. Quite how he came to be picked in Seville only Claudio Ranieri knows - it can only have been a punt, because there was certainly no persuasive evidence for his inclusion. What is slightly odd is that Demarai Gray hasn’t made it into the side, as he’s been Leicester’s best player of late.
As for Liverpool, Jordan Henderson has a foot injury, so Emre Can comes in.
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Teams are here!
Leicester City (4-4-expletive-2): Schmeichel; Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez, Drinkwater, Ndidi, Albrighton; Okazaki, Vardy. Subs: Chilwell, King, Amartey, Slimani, Zieler, Gray, Ulloa.
Liverpool (gegenpress): Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lucas, Milner; Can, Wijnaldum, Lallana; Mane, Firmino, Coutinho. Subs: Karius, Moreno, Klavan, Stewart, Alexander-Arnold, Origi, Woodburn.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Young)
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Preamble
The world, these days, is an implacable, extreme place. Thanks to the enormous amount of unmoderated information delivered to us in bitesized chunks of individual turd-u-like, we are all experts in every field of human endeavour, and as such know the right answer to every question, however nuanced and complex it may be. As such, and depending on who you ask, Leicester were either absolutely right to sack Claudio Ranieri and really ought to have done so sooner, or appallingly, mortifyingly wrong.
And yet, the reality is that we don’t have a clue whether Leicester would have stayed up if Ranieri had stayed, nor whether, now that he’s left, it’ll be better for the club in the long run. So, might we even see both sides of the argument and have no definite opinion? On the one hand, he inherited a team that was built, schooled and on a winning run, then bought badly and found himself unable to inspire his players or abort a losing run once things stopped going well; or, on the other hand, he was astute enough to appreciate the quality of what he’d been left, made the tweaks necessary to achieve something unbelievable, and was then let down by players who couldn’t stop celebrating, before being fired immediately after he’d turned it around.
What we do know for sure is Ranieri is gone and Leicester are in all sorts. Amazingly, the board appear to have dispensed with him despite not having a successor primed, which might tell us how essential it was that he left ... or how highly Craig Shakespeare is rated ... or something we don’t yet and might never know. See, it’s a good game, this.
Anyway, tonight they entertain Liverpool, who look to be on the road back after issues of their own. They were never up to winning the title - there’s a rare certainty for us - but the way it, and the FA Cup, disappeared so quickly, turned an exciting season into a potentially disappointing one. Now, they’re fighting to finish in the top four, and probably wondering whether they’ll face a rudderless outfit, or a liberated one. We just don’t know!
Kick-off: 8pm GMT
