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This might seem a little negative, but after watching Liverpool succumb to another entirely predictable result, we didn’t have much choice this morning but to tell it like it is.
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The total lack of pace all over the pitch…
Alberto Moreno and Nathaniel Clyne can move, but nobody else on that pitch for Liverpool possessed any acceleration. Lucas, Emre Can, Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana, James Milner and Roberto Firmino are slow. End of. How we could have done with Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy last night. They run channels, offer an option in behind, sprint for the ball. We used to have Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge in the same side. Now, we’re waiting on Divock Origi and Sturridge’s availability to inject any kind of speed into the team whatsoever.
Jordan Henderson’s fitness…
The captain was subbed after 65 minutes again, and he just didn’t look fit all night. Worryingly, Henderson doesn’t look naturally comfortable in his movement. He was outmuscled and was a passenger in central midfield. We’ve missed him badly this season through injury, but now here’s here – we’re still missing his leadership and ferocity of pressing because he’s not playing anywhere near his best level.
Our inability to do anything from corners…
12 corners last night, not even an iota of a chance created from one of them. Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho are big, strong defenders who can head the ball – but you wouldn’t know it in an offensive sense. Having double figure corners is usually a sign that you’ve dominated a game and are pressuring the opposition – but Leicester probably had more chance of scoring via a counter attack from our corners than we did via a header.
That’s now three games without a goal…
We failed to score at home to Stoke for a full match (including Extra Time), we drew a blank at home to West Ham in the FA Cup and didn’t trouble the scorers away to Leicester last night. Overall we’ve scored 30 Premier League goals, but five of those came away to Norwich – meaning we’ve bagged 25 in the other 23 games. Very, very stale statistics, which makes our decision not to buy a forward during January all the crazier.
Leicester have proven that we literally have nobody to blame but ourselves…
Leicester’s starting XI last night cost less than Dejan Lovren, who couldn’t deal with former non-league forward Vardy all evening. Claudio Ranieri is wonderfully proving that you can build an exciting team who wins matches and plays good football on a shoestring. Leicester’s recruitment has been otherworldly, while ours has been nothing short of atrocious. What would we do to swap £32.5m Christian Benteke with Mahrez and Vardy – two players whose pace, pressing and running actually suit our style? Why did we arm Brendan Rodgers with an enormous summer budget only to sack him seven games later? How’ve we spent all this money yet still have such an unbalanced squad lacking in any real quality?