On Monday 27th Febuary at the King Power stadium, Leicester City welcomed Liverpool in their first game in the post Ranieri era, and they put on their best performance of the season. A Danny Drinkwater wonder strike, in between a brace from Jamie Vardy put the reds away 3 goals to 1, with Coutinho scoring a late consolation goal. Jurgen Klopp's men played right into the hands of the Premier League champions, with an almost disrespectful approach shown by Liverpool, they played such a high line allowing Jamie Vardy and Leicester City to play the brand of football we haven't seen since they lifted the trophy last many, which asks the question. Why haven't we seen it?
The Leicester City players showed something on Monday night we haven't seen from them in months, effort. A side which seemingly was heading for relegation turned up to the KP with a caretaker manager in charge and after two days in the job the football world watched his side make a complete turn around and play a style of football which has brought them so much success in the past. That sort of turn around doesn't happen, what we saw was the players putting in a shift, making an effort, showing the passion and dedication that won them the title under Claudio. With this sort of performance under their belts you have to wonder how they got into this position. Simple. The players downed tools under their previous boss, the man who lead an average Leicester side to success, and they forced him out when things weren't gong their way. At the start of this years Premier League season teams had seemingly 'found out' Leicester City, and could now counter their style. Not giving Vardy the space to run into the channels, not pressing high to give Drinkwater the option to clip the ball in behind, and testing the back line of Morgan and Huth in a very different way to last season. This change in approach was made more apparent by the lose of N'Golo Kante, the Frenchman who is set to perhaps be named as the signing of the season two seasons in a row, without his legs in midfield Leicester struggled to play at the pace they did last season, and without his protection, the back line was put under fire in a way they weren't last season. As the opposition found a way to counter Leicester City, Claudio Ranieri tried to enforce a new style of football within his team. The signings of more forward thinking players and by throwing more men forward, Claudio tried to make his team play in a way similar to the other top sides in the league. However as history has told us, it didn't work. Leicester simply did not have the players to fit the system, or the quality to make it work. Leicester, despite success in Europe against teams which had not seem their original style of play, started to plummet down the table to the point that, before Monday, they fell into the relegation zone.
What the Leicester City players have to be ashamed for is that they simply had no intention of making Claudio's tactics work. They didn't receive instant success, and all of a sudden the players who had received such plaudits last season, the players who worked their bodies into the ground under Ranieri, turned their back on the man that brought them the greatest year of their careers. These where all just rumours, until a story broke and was plastered across the entire country of a meeting being held between the Leicester squad and their owners regarding the future of their manager. What's worse is this meeting took place in Seville, hours before their Champions league last 16 clash with Sevilla, which saw Leicester put it a commendable performance and walk away win an away goal in a 2-1 defeat. What hurts even more is that potentially, the Leicester players knew their bosses future before he did, as once the team landed and made their wait to a hotel next to the airport. Claudio Ranieri was sacked. And then, on the following Monday, after two days under Craig Shakespeare, the Leicester players started running again, showing heart again. Jamie Vardy completed more sprints then he has all season, and after not scoring a league goal in 2017, the champions scored three. As a football fan it hurts me to see player power abused to this extent, to cost such a well respected man his job. I personally hope Claudio Ranieri retires now, so he can retire as champion, and no one, not even a group of overexposed players can take that away from him.
There was two sides to this match however, the other being the worst performance from Liverpool I have witnessed in recent memory. In the first half Wes Morgan made a good interception from a Sadio Mane ball across the bow and in the second half Coutinho slotted the ball into the bottom left corner. These are the only two examples of Liverpool attempting to play progressive football, despite having over 60% possession throughout the game. What looked like a lack of desire from a fans point of view, the Liverpool players seemed to expect the Leicester players to just roll over for them and hand over the three points. Liverpool were second to every ball, lost every header, out thought and out played for 90 minutes. Liverpool made this Leicester side look world class, Christan Fuchs, the Leicester left back who has really been found out this season made his way down the Liverpool right earl in the second half, unchallenged, turn Clyne with ease and whipped in a cross onto Vardy's head for the third goal, again completely unchallenged. The same in the channels during the first has was embarrassing to watch, Jamie Vardy may have not scored in closing in on 10 Premier League games but everyone knows his game, one ball in down his right hand side, one touch, bottom corner. The defensive display for Liverpool was nothing short of laughable, and when you take into account the Liverpool defence on Monday night, you can see why! Left to right, James Milner. He's undoubtedly had a good season in his new role, but he is still a midfielder, a right sided midfielder at that. Lucas. Again a midfielder, the Brazilian has never had the legs needed to keep up with fast attackers so why is he playing at centre back? Joel Matip. The only exception, a well rounded defender but on his own there was nothing he could do! And Nathaniel Clyne. Who has really struggled defensively this season, much like Glen Johnson before him.
With the defence as open as it was Liverpool never had the chance to do anything in this game, and when they did a lack of desire and an arrogance on display resulted in one of the world performances of the season. Coutinho as usual, looked by far and away Liverpool's star man, and Origi off the bench at least was a handful, but I can't think of a single other outfield player who can take anything positive away form this game. The pressure is know heavily being piled onto Jurgen Klopp, the German is started to come under criticism which his way with words can't cover up. Is it a poor team selection? Are the owner, FSG not backing Klopp in the way Liverpool need them to? Are the players simply not up to standard? A lot of questions are being asked right now, and they need to be answered soon if Liverpool are to have any chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
So it was a rare game to say the least. How often can both sides come off as an embarrassment. In all honesty, I can't wait to see just how Leicester progress throughout the rest of the season, will they continue to be found out with a system that, although tried and tested, is common knowledge now. And can the self proclaimed 'normal one' rescue Liverpool's season before it is just another wasted year?
