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MOTD: Liverpool 1-0 Leicester City

By on December 26, 2015

“There was a lot of electricity,” said Leicester City gaffer Claudio Ranieri after his team’s win over Chelsea a few weeks back. “Without electricity we are a normal team. With the fans, who pushed behind us, it was fantastic and I’m very happy.”

In Leicester’s Boxing Day slip-up at Anfield tonight perhaps we saw a glimpse of that less appealing “normal” team for the first time since Leicester’s last league loss, way back in September. Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy both started, but neither were 100% fit. “Everybody works hard, but without [Mahrez and Vardy], we cannot win,” Ranieri said after the Chelsea fixture and today he was proven right. Neither could maintain the focus that has guided them to the top of the Premier League table this season and Leicester only looked truly dangerous when the pair were hauled off midway through the second period.

It was not the result that worried and perplexed Ranieri tonight, but this notable lack of a spark. Leicester failed to score for the first time this season and although they kept Liverpool to a single goal, a more potent opponent would surely have torn them apart. Perhaps, though, both Leicester and Liverpool are in luck; given Arsenal’s 4-0 loss to Southampton, none of the Premier League’s best guns seem to be firing. Leicester will discover the true extent of their capacity to rebound from a setback against Manchester City next weekend.

Yet for the moment The Foxes remain top, making this week another to cherish. Relative to their position this time last year, bottom of the Premier League table, it seems crazy how far Ranieri’s men have come. Today’s late resurgence, albeit in vain, was also a timely reminder that Leicester are still very much dangerous even without their leading men.

Liverpool dominated from the opening whistle and Philippe Coutinho curled wide from twenty yards just two minutes in. Mamadou Sakho connected his head on a similar bending effort from Coutinho in the twenty-third minute, but couldn’t get over the ball. Klopp set up with Jordan Henderson and Emre Can at the root of a 4-2-3-1, leaving out defensive midfielder Lucas Leiva in favor for a more attacking approach.

Can forced Schmeichel into a low effort down at the Dane’s near post and Adam Lallana blasted a good chance into the side netting, but the match was decided by a single chance, Benteke’s goal early in the second half. He hadn’t started the match, but came on as a replacement for Divock Origi, who suffered an injury late in the first half. On the half hour mark Roberto Firmino clipped in a low cross from the left and Benteke poked it past Schmeichel at the far post.

In response, Ranieri brought on Leonardo Ulloa, Andrej Kramaric and Nathan Dyer for Vardy, Shinji Okazaki and Mahrez. With Vardy suffering a fever and Mahrez looking knackered, it was a smart decision to give the pair a little rest going into a meeting with Manchester City on New Year’s Day. Dyer nearly leveled on seventy-three minutes with a near-post effort from Christian Fuchs’ low cross from the left, forcing Mignolet into a smart reaction save.

Yet Liverpool held on, bringing on Lucas for Coutinho and Joe Allen for Lallana late on and Benteke’s goal proved to be the eventual winner, making him Liverpool’s top scorer this season; given his recent struggles, the stat somewhat sums up Liverpool’s offensive woes. Indeed, perhaps more memorable than the Belgian’s goal was the image of him missing a sitter late-on with the goal unoccupied. Kasper Schmeichel had gone up for a last-minute corner and Liverpool broke away, five verses two. Schmeichel was left chasing dust as Liverpool filtered the ball into Benteke, twenty yards from goal with just Wes Morgan in the way. Yet Benteke dallied on the ball and couldn’t get good contact on a low effort, which Morgan tackled wide. The ball fell to Lucas Leiva, but Andrej Kramaric busted a gut to get in the way of the Brazilian’s close-range header.

Might Liverpool wish for a new striker over the transfer window for Christmas?

Homepage photo credit: By md.faisalzaman [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.