KLOPP NOT HAPPY:
That’s it from me, congratulations to Leicester. They rode their luck, but the work ethic was phenomenal and scored a goal filled with quality.
The last word is from Jon Rogers, via email.
“My favourite Jason McAteer story was when he was allegedly asked by a mate whether he wanted his pizza cut into six or eight slices - and he opted for six as he wasn’t hungry enough to eat eight! And I don’t care whether or not it’s true.”
Goodnight.
Richard Jolly's match report
Here’s Brendan Rodgers:
Today was going to be a huge mental test, and there’s probably not a team that is more physical in the league than Liverpool. I am lost for words, it was such a heroic performance.
I said after Manchester City that we had played well. It’s been a challenge with all the players missing. But the beauty of the game is that you write your own story in football.
It’s one of those periods. We’ll have Wilf [Ndidi] going off to the African Cup of Nations as well.
In 15 years of Opta stats, no team has had more touches in the opposition box than Liverpool’s 67 tonight, and not scored.
Updated
Kasper Schmeichel speaks! He put in a man of the match performance today.
A very important win. It’s a credit to our mentality. We don’t give up. We keep going. The last penalty I saved at the King Power, they scored the rebound. We didn’t have a bit of luck against City but we had it today. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable win.
Liverpool fail to score for the first time in 35 matches. Eight and a half months. Leicester up to ninth after just their third clean sheet of the season. They are still very much in the race for Europe.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man City | 19 | 38 | 47 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 19 | 34 | 41 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 19 | 29 | 41 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 19 | 9 | 35 |
| 5 | West Ham | 19 | 9 | 31 |
| 6 | Tottenham Hotspur | 17 | 2 | 30 |
| 7 | Man Utd | 17 | 2 | 28 |
| 8 | Wolverhampton | 18 | -1 | 25 |
| 9 | Leicester | 18 | -2 | 25 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 19 | 0 | 23 |
| 11 | Brighton | 17 | -1 | 23 |
| 12 | Aston Villa | 18 | -4 | 22 |
| 13 | Southampton | 19 | -9 | 21 |
| 14 | Brentford | 17 | -3 | 20 |
| 15 | Everton | 17 | -8 | 19 |
| 16 | Leeds | 18 | -18 | 16 |
| 17 | Watford | 17 | -13 | 13 |
| 18 | Burnley | 15 | -7 | 11 |
| 19 | Newcastle | 19 | -23 | 11 |
| 20 | Norwich | 19 | -34 | 10 |
Updated
Full-time: Leicester City 1-0 Liverpool
A huge result at the top of the Premier League. Liverpool’s defeat means Manchester City go six points clear. Brendan Rodgers gets one over his old side, and Leicester’s players are understandably delighted.
Updated
90+4 min: Pinball in the Leicester box. Schmeichel palms a cross away. Dewsbury-Hall slices a clearance. Liverpool come roaring back and earn a corner. Here’s comes Alisson! West Brom, eat your heart out. Alexander-Arnold swings his delivery to the back post and Firmino and Matip get in each other’s way! Disaster for Liverpool.
Updated
90+2 min: Interesting to know whether Leicester would swap this potential win for a win last week at Anfield? The league always seems to be a priority, but a League Cup semi-final is also pretty special.
90 min: Liverpool throwing everything at Leicester now. Keita has a shot blocked. Jota breaks to the byline but Castagne gets across. Two Liverpool corners are headed away.
Five minutes added on for injury-time.
89 min: Castagne gets a forearm to the head in a aerial dual with Van Dijk. A brief stoppage in play for Leicester to catch their breath.
87 min: Another Liverpool corner, and Mané heads wide, taking the ball off the forehead of Jota, who was better placed behind him.
85 min: Salah slaloms around three players but is finally tackled by Castagne, just as the Egyptian was winding up for a shot. Leicester are defending corners well at the moment and they do the same here, Thomas heading away.
83 min: The cameras pan to the stands, where one particular Leicester fan is clapping so passionately, he looks like he might burst a blood vessel. That’s that passion Milner was talking about pre-match.
81 min: Jota heads wide from a corner. It’s a half chance. Jota is only 5ft10in but times his leaps so well. Should do better here.
79 min: A miserable free kick from Alexander-Arnold, who floats one to the edge of the box for Salah to volley horribly high and wide. Why on earth isn’t AA swinging one into the mixer towards Van Dijk? No team has conceded more set-pieces in the Premier League this season than Leicester.
77 min: “That three horse race we all hoped for is rapidly becoming a single horse canter,” emails Phillip Haran. “Title by Easter?”
Pep Guardiola will certainly be rubbing his hands together at this score. If things stay this way, Manchester City will be six points clear at the top.
75 min: Vardy does indeed come back on, a little gingerly.
74 min: An odd off-the-ball incident involving Matip and Vardy leaves the latter in a heap on the half-way line. It looks from the replays as though Vardy was trying to dart behind Matip on his blindside and the German-born Cameroonian caught him in the face with a flailing arm. Matip certainly has to be careful as he’s the only player on a yellow card but Andre Marriner deems the challenge to be accidental. Vardy does look a little dazed though, as he goes off the pitch for treatment. Remember, Leicester have made all three subs so Rodgers will be keen to get his striker back on.
72 min: An email from Richard Preston: “I seem to remember him being in a Head & Shoulders advert in the late 90s that had the slogan along the lines of: “When Jason plays, people watch.”
Well remembered. It was actually ‘Wash & Go’ but spot on with the slogan. And what about: “Jason knows you can have it all.”
To be fair to our Birkenhead boy, his hair does look magnificent.
70 min: Liverpool make their final change, and it’s an attacking one: Firmino for Henderson.
69 min: Leicester doing well to keep possession. They do not want to regress to that low block again and invite those crosses in from Alexander-Arnold and Tsimikas.
67 min: Maddison tracks back to prevent Tsimikas getting to the byline, but injures himself in the process. That’s a real shame, he’s been in such scintillating form of late, including an absolute ripsnorter of a goal at Anfield last week. Albrighton comes on in his place.
65 min: If Lookman has been game-changing since coming on, Tielemans has been dismal, and has given the ball away at least three times. A word for Dewsbury-Hall, by the way, he’s been excellent all night, both with and without the ball. Doing a real stint on the left in front of Thomas to negate both Salah and Alexander-Arnold.
63 min: Leicester have something to hold onto now. Liverpool make their second change: Milner on for Fabinho.
60 min: You have to say that was poor defending from Van Dijk! The Dutchman let Lookman shoot rather than actively try to tackle him.
GOAL! Leicester 1-0 Liverpool (Lookman 59)
Lookman scores with his first contribution! Again, Dewsbury-Hall finds some space on the left, feeds Lookman, who bursts past Matip with pace and plants a powerful low shot past the block of Van Dijk and the save of Alisson. The ball nestles inside the near post and the King Power erupts! A fantastic goal!
Updated
56 min: Both sides make changes. Leicester swap Tielemans for Choudhury and Lookman for Inheanacho. Liverpool bring Oxlade-Chamberlain off for Keita.
54 min: Ooooooooo. What a miss from Mané! A golden chance as he is released by Jota, the Senegalese cuts inside Castagne, bears down on goal and simply passes the ball a yard over the bar. It seemed easier to miss, he had all the time in the world! Klopp reels on the sidelines, hands on head.
52 min: But then, Leicester break. And like a Kit Kat fresh out of the freezer, they break very well. Iheanacho and Dewsbury-Hall combine beautifully down the left, the latter playing a near-inch perfect low cross to Vardy at the back post. But Tsimikas just gets a toe to it. Without that, Vardy was in!
50 min: Increasingly desperate stuff from Leicester, especially their composure on the ball when they do win it back. “Leicester look so jittery - there is no way they’ll keep a clean sheet,” emails Andy O’Shaughnessy. On the evidence this half, you’d have to agree.
48 min: And we settle into a familiar pattern of Liverpool possession and half-chances. Jota briefly threatened to score after nicking the ball from Amartey in Leicester’s box, but sheer weight of defensive numbers stopped any further danger.
Peeeeep! And we’re off again for the second half.
An email from Andy Flintoff (“not that one”).
Jason McAteer was more than a bit part player for Liverpool - he was a regular for two and a half seasons before breaking his leg, and only left in 1999 because Houllier didn’t fancy him.
Anyway, on the game - Leicester’s midfield is too narrow, meaning that there’s always space for one or the other Liverpool fullbacks to move in to. If Rodgers doesn’t change this, then the pattern of the first half will be repeated, unless his plan all along is to get the LFC fullbacks to go forward and try to exploit the space behind them on the break with Maddison (who is drifting too far left with Iheanacho moving in that direction too).”
Think you’re right Andy, I’ve done Jason a disservice. Not sure I would describe him as a legend though, as he is often described.
Yep, Leicester’s shape is a sort of narrow low-block, and they certainly rode their luck in the first half. But Klopp will be scared of the pace of Iheanacho and Vardy. I would expect Lookman to come on at some point, too.
Half-time viewing
See you in 15 mins or so.
Half-time: Leicester 0-0 Liverpool
Liverpool have had the better of it, but after Schmeichel’s penalty save, Leicester have steadily grown into this game. It’s a good’un.
Updated
45+2 min: A very nasty fall for Iheanacho, who falls squarely on his back after an aerial dual with Matip. Eeeesh, he fell a full six feet there. Looks to be OK, thank goodness.
45 min: Jota flashes a volley well wide from around the penalty box. He should perhaps have done a little better. I would not be surprised to see Firmino in his place in the second half.
42 min: Strange end to this half, which is in danger of becoming scrappy.
39 min: “Liverpool is in the house and Leicester have a McAteer on their bench?” emails Peter Oh. “Top gamesmanship there!”
Jason McAteer was a strange one at Liverpool. He always pops up as one of the club ‘legends’ these days, despite only playing a bit part role for four seasons with the club. He was born in Birkenhead, though.
37 min: Leicester go close again. Ndidi is too strong for Salah, and his clearance fortuitously releases Vardy down the right. The 34-year-old slips Maddison in with a cute pass to the byline and the midfielder slashes an effort across goal. He had time to take a touch, but Alexander Arnold is there to clear things up at the back stick. Leicester’s best period of the game.
Updated
35 min: First real chance for Leicester! A wonderful one-two with Maddison sees Vardy worm into the penalty box. The striker gets his low shot off, but Matip is across to deflect it wide. Crucial block!
34 min: News coming through that Everton v Newcastle has been postponed as a result of Covid. Reportedly it is Newcastle, who played Manchester United last night, that asked the Premier League for it to be called off.
32 min: Outstanding from Schmeichel! Leicester are really under the cosh here. A defensive mix-up between Ndidi and Thomas allows Salah to get one of this snap shots away, and Schmeichel throws up his right hand to tip it over the bar. Salah was at an acute angle but that was flying into the top corner from close range!
Updated
30 min: Amartey is the latest to give the ball away cheaply. Mané gets free on the left, finds Jota, who is hurtling into the box at full speed, but Ndidi makes an inch-perfect tackle to save the day for Leicester.
28 min: Jota hasn’t been in the game, but gets his first opportunity, finding space from a Henderson flick on. Schmeichel comes out well to smother it, before the flag goes up for offside. Replays show Jota may well have been on!
26 min: Thomas has his pocket picked by Henderson, who seems to be the furthest forward of Liverpool’s midfield three this evening. Henderson wins a dangerous free-kick just right of Leicester’s areas, but Tsimikas’s deep cross is headed away, and another wild long-range effort from Henderson comes to nothing.
Updated
23 min: Schmeichel saves! Oxlade-Chamberlain drops a lofted cross awkwardly over Leicester’s centre backs towards the near post. Henderson steals in and although he doesn’t touch the cross, the ball nearly creeps inside the post, with Schmeichel just aware enough to tip the ball onto the post and away.
22 min: Leicester haven’t had a sniff so far. But that Liverpool defence, particularly on the right with Alexander-Arnold and Matip, is susceptible to a counter-attack.
20 min: Soumare takes a ball to the face, and there is a break in play.
17 min: The home crowd, previously quiet and nervy, roar into life. Leicester escape. It remains 0-0. It was a poor penalty in all honesty. Salah passed it just left of centre, and Schmeichel read it easily to parry the ball away.
Schmeichel saves! And Salah can only head the rebound back against the bar!
15 min: Schmeichel’s save bounces into the ground, an inch too high for Salah to direct the rebound into the net. Instead he heads against the bar, and Leicester scramble away the second rebound. Just the third time Salah has missed a penalty for Liverpool!
Updated
Penalty to Liverpool!
14 min: A needless challenge by Ndidi on Salah. Leicester switch off from a throw in, and Salah is all too happy to go over the Nigerian’s outstretched leg on the six yard box. Salah will take the spot kick.
Updated
13 min: Twice now Alexander-Arnold has released Tsimikas with sumptuous cross-field balls. The man has a velvet right boot.
10 min: Dewsbury-Hall, then Soumare loses the ball just outside the Leicester penalty box, victims of Liverpool’s press. The reds are tightening their grip on this game, even if there hasn’t been a clear-cut chance of note … yet.
8 min: Henderson volleys over from 25 yards. Three yards over the bar but it was fizzing.
7 min: Yellow card for Matip, who chops down Iheanacho to halt a threatening Leicester counter-attack. Fabinho also left his mark on Choudhury but escapes punishment.
6 min: Castagne is playing nice and high. I think it’s fair to say that the Mark Albrighton experiment at right back has died a death. Maddison threatens to shoot on the edge of the Liverpool box but is forced backwards and Soumare skews his effort high and wide. We have a game on our hands, folks!
4 min: Alexander-Arnold rakes one of his Beckham-esque diagonals out to Tsimikas, who bombs forward a la Robertson, and picks out a wonderful cross to Salah at the back post. The Egyptian knocks it down to Jota on the six yard box, who has his shot well blocked by Amartey. Great defending.
2 min: A slow start, with Fabinho and Henderson taking turns as right wingers, winning a series of throw-ins. Leicester’s left back, Thomas, is sticking to Salah like glue.
Peeeeeep! And we’re off in the east Midlands.
The teams are out: Leicester in their royal blue, Liverpool in their scarlet. All take the knee. There is no room for racism or discrimination of any kind.
Klopp speaks!
Thiago was in training one day but next day felt a little here and there so we had to leave him at home.
On Leicester:
You can see tonight that they are a really strong side. Looks like it’s a diamond. Maddison is someone we are watching, don’t let him shoot! Don’t let him pass! But he’s not the only one, Vardy and Iheanacho are also playing some incredible stuff together.”
Just two clean sheets for Leicester this season, and no team in the Premier League has conceded more goals from set-pieces. With the return of VVD, I’m quite surprised to see Verstergaard on the bench.
Rodgers has been talking pre-match.
On why Youri Tielemans has been left out.
The [amount of] games. You really need that energy in midfield.”
On the red-hot form of James Maddison.
I think his consistency is right up there. He’s been really effective these last few months. But importantly, his defensive work has really elevated his game.
Supporting Leicester must be fun, you know. There are relatively low expectations but there isn’t a game that they go into thinking they can’t win.
For all the talk of Leicester’s injuries, that’s not a bad XI. A strange one to start Amartey and Ndidi at centre-back when you’ve got Vestergaard on the bench, but Brendan Rodgers is a football genius.
It’s a strong Liverpool lineup, with VVD nestling back into CB alongside Matip. And the Oxlade-Chamberlain renaissance continues, he’s keeping the bums of Keita, Milner and Jones firmly on the bench.
Delighted to say that Chelsea manager Emma Hayes will be a pundit tonight for Amazon, which is the TV broadcaster here in the UK. Far and away the most interesting TV talker we’ve got.
Oh, and Jon Champion with Ally McCoist in the gantry. A lovely little bonus.
Updated
The teams!
Leicester: Schmeichel, Castagne, Amartey, Ndidi, Thomas, Choudhury, Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Vardy, Iheanacho.
Subs: Tielemans, Albrighton, Ward, Perez, Vestergaard, Lookman, Daley-Campbell, Nelson, McAteer.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Henderson, Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Salah, Jota, Mane.
Subs: Konate, Milner, Keita, Firmino, Gomez, Jones, Kelleher, Beck, Williams.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
Preamble
Wherever your hot take on the DRAMA that is fixture scheduling – shock news as manager takes stance that would directly benefit his own team! – it is fair to say that despite Jürgen Klopp recent warbles Liverpool arrive at the King Power tonight in considerably better shape than their hosts, Leicester City. The Reds have not kicked a ball since their 3-3 draw with the Foxes last week in the Carabao Cup, and welcome back the quartet of Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Thiago Alcantara back for tonight’s game.
Having given it a right good go at Manchester City on Saturday, paying homage to the crazy Boxing Days of yesteryear with their own 6-3 scoreline, Leicester are missing nine first-team players through injury, including four of his first-choice defence – Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, James Justin and Ricardo Pereira – the latter suffering a broken leg as a result of Liverpool’s Tyler Morton’s horror tackle last week. Morton was given just a yellow card and neither he or Klopp mentioned the challenge after the game.
If tonight is half as exciting as last week, we’ll have a decent game. If James Milner, normally a picture of serenity (#heavyshloersession) can get THIS PASSIONATE, you can peel yourself away from games with the in-laws to join me for the 8pm kick-off.
Different competition, same passion 🔴 #YNWA pic.twitter.com/KjYRStgvKS
— James Milner (@JamesMilner) December 27, 2021
