Flying over to Leicester for a live game is always fun, and we were looking forward to a day of great memories. Seen Leicester v. Liverpool a number of times live, the last one, ended in defeat, so did this one. But seen Leicester defeat Liverpool also, as far back as 2001, and also a draw in 2004.
Reactions were many to the line-up and the fact that Kelechi Iheanacho was dropped and instead playing Demarai Gray up front. This gave place to Rachid Ghezzal who showed great form against Fleetwood, scroring a stunner of a goal.
If you look at the Liverpool defence, you would really be surprised to see Puel going for Gray as a lonely target man, since he is not a target man, he is not big, and his pace is not that good, to run away from Van Dijk.
The start of the game was terrible and defensively things never really worked, giving Liverpool too much space in the start, with Salah, Mane and Firmino all having a “walk in the park”.
Robertson is also one to look out for and after 10 minutes it was open as in the “Mandela Park”, giving the Scottish international a free walk and finding Mane who converted we all knew from the stands that this would be very difficult.
Leicester managed to come back and had a few chances, but nothing that disturbed Alisson in a way that it was seen as big chances. But again City came back and took a bit of controll.
The sadness of it all was that Liverpool again managed to “kill the game” with a header from Firmino, great crossed from the corner from James Milner.
2nd half was a bit of a “facelift” with Leicester the best team, really showing some great play and it could have really been more goals than the one that was scored.
Kelechi Iheanacho catching the ball from Alisson, who messed it up big time, passing it in and Maddison again found Ghezzal who shot the ball into the net.
Wes Morgan came close and stumbled just a foot away from the goal. Chilwell showed class, so did Mendy and Ndidi. Despite a great 2nd half and great support from fans during the whole game, really a great atmosphere, it was not enough to get anything out of the game, ending it all in a donut.
- Positvies:
- Keeping the ball more than Liverpool in 2nd half, and at times playing the Anfield boys of the carpet
- Chilwell again our best player, great initiatives and good moves and passes
- Ndidi and Mendy running midfield and keeping the ball rolling
- Rachid Ghezzal scoring his 2nd goal in his 2nd game
- Kelechi coming on and giving it all. He had great passion and good moves
- Great fans, really showing passion, despite being 2-0 down, that is massive and very important to get behind the team no matter what
- Negatives:
- Puel using Gray as a striker instead of Iheanacho
- Three yellow cards, Ghezzal, Ndidi and Mendy
- A poor start, destroyed the game
- Morgan, not really leading the team as he should with a few big mistakes
Player Ratings: Schmeichel 7. Pereira 6, Chilwell 8, Morgan 5, Maguire 6, Mendy 7, Ndidi 7, Albrighton 6, Gray 4, Maddison 6, Ghezzal 7, Subs: Iheanacho 7, Okazaki, Amartey
Match Stats: H/A
- Possession: 46 / 54
- Corners: 4 / 4
- Shots on target: 5 / 2
- Shots wide: 4 / 4
- Fouls: 9 / 12
- Offsides: 3 / 2
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