How Liverpool’s defeat to Leicester encapsulated the Reds’ disappointing season

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Passionless, spineless, unacceptable – some of the words to describe Liverpool’s performance against Leicester City on Monday evening.

The Reds had a couple of days off with the FA Cup last week, after another head-in-hands game against Championship side Wolves, in which they bowed out in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup following a 1-2 defeat.

More recently, Jürgen Klopp’s side have been their not-so-tricky selves (with just one league win in 2017) and any sceptical Liverpool fan knew that Leicester would be no walk in the park, despite their league position, form, and managerial crisis.

Claudio Ranieri’s shock sacking midweek captured all the headlines prior to Sky Sports Monday Night Football where the Merseyside club visited the King Power Stadium.

In recent years, the ‘lesser teams’ have come to haunt the Reds at Anfield and away from home. This season, the trend has continued and against Sunderland, Swansea City, and Hull City, they have severely lacked quality and have given a very poor account of themselves.

2017, for the Anfield outfit, has been one to forget. Their glistening early season form has been erased since the turn of the year, a sheer capitulation of a team who looked a force to be reckoned with before Christmas.

By no means was it going to be a walkover for Liverpool, even taking into account their form and the sacking of their Premier League winning manager. But you were expecting a real dogfight between two teams suffering massively. Nonetheless, only one team was up for the fight on the night.

From the first whistle, the hosts were on the front foot and looked up for a fight. The Premier League Champions and now-relegation-battlers had a point to prove under the management of Caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare.

Despite the visitors threatening early in the game, it was all Leicester. The Foxes wanted it more. You could argue they had more to play for, but really, Liverpool didn’t get out of their shells and had to withstand heavy pressure for most of the game.

The 2015/16 Europa League finalist’s key players had a less than standout performance on Monday night. Despite his cool finish to give the visitors a slight glimmer of hope, Philippe Coutinho proved a passenger throughout proceedings.

That isn’t pointing fingers at Liverpool’s number 10 as the main reason for his side faltering. Afer all, his teammates who featured looked like they didn’t want to battle or grind out a victory.

The King Power Stadium was never going to a place where the Reds emerge with three points unscathed, but from the first whistle, it seemed like the players were naïve and afraid to get dirty.

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Simon Mignolet could do nothing with the three goals, and without him, it could’ve been much more for Leicester.

The Belgian shot-stopper could do very little about the Foxes’ two brilliant finishes, the pick of the bunch was Danny Drinkwater’s volley, nine minutes after Vardy’s opener, who added his second with a great header on the hour mark.

One could ramble all article long about how Liverpool lacked passion, grit, and desire but there were more crucial factors which severely let the Reds down.

Something that really cost the visitors the chance to go back into the Champions League places was Klopp’s choice of tactics.

Leicester were clever, they played on the fact that Lucas Leiva, at centre-back, is an awkward position. So, for the first goal, a quick ball through for Vardy to have a footrace against the Brazilian ended with the hosts going 1-nil to the good.

The high Liverpool line works in certain games, but against a team who thrived off the English talismans power and pace upfront, it was a disaster waiting to happen. On the night, they paid for it.

Among those who disappointed on Monday night were;

Nathaniel Clyne; an uncharacteristic poor game for the fullback. The Englishman was naïve in possession but seemed to find his feet in the second half.

Joel Matip; careless in possession at crucial times, which killed positive moves. Had a great chance in the first half only for Leicester captain Wes Morgan to take a goalscoring opportunity off his toe.

Georginio Wijnaldum; a player who recently has been so impressive for Liverpool, was careless in possession and gave the ball away in the build-up to the opener.

Emre Can; the 23-year-old’s poor form continues and he too was lacklustre in possession. His poor night was typified as Jamie Vardy beat him in the air for the host’s third goal – a battle you never want to see one of your sides’ taller players lose.

It’s unfair to point the finger at these players, but overall it was a poor performance. Fair play to the Premier League holders who nullified one of the deadliest attacks in the league, thwarting the threat of Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, and Saido Mané – a front line which tore the host’s apart in the return fixture in September.

Ultimately, on Monday night, Liverpool were not up for the fight. Leicester had a lot more on the line, trying to prove a point. For Jürgen Klopp, it was one step forward, two steps back, following their dominant win over Tottenham before the break. Coming into March, and with just one league win since the turn of the year, the Reds are at risk of collapsing further.

It’s a sad tale to be a Liverpool fan, with the opening two months of 2017 being ones to forget.

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