Recap
Leicester City fell by a score of 1-0 to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon at the King Power, ensuring their relegation to the League Championship after just one season in the top flight. Mo Salah and Wilfred Ndidi both rattled the post in a goalless first half. Midway through the second period, Trent Alexander-Arnold scored to give the visitors the full three points.
For what it’s worth, it was a decent performance from Leicester. The xG was ugly: 0.25 vs. 2.62, but it isn’t like the Foxes were under enormous pressure for most of the match. Liverpool had their flurries, but the defending and goalkeeping were stout, and a draw wouldn’t have been the most unfair result in the world.
According to whoscored.com, the standouts for the Foxes were Hermansen (7.7), Ndidi (7.5), and Thomas (7.1). I think that’s a fair representation. Thomas did a fine job on Salah, Ndidi was everywhere, and Hermansen was back to his best. You’ll probably note the lack of attacking players on that list. Once again, the front line were starved of possession and when that happens, we’re going to struggle to score.
I imagine we’ll do a post-mortem on this season, but it’s a simple fact that this side were not good enough to stay in the top flight. That’s not just a knock on the players; the entire club were simply not set up for survival. We got what we deserved.
3 Takeaways
- This was the first time since the Ipswich draw in early November that Wilfred Ndidi and Ricardo Pereira started a match together. It was also our best defensive performance in quite a while.
- Luke Thomas is much better as a fullback than in a back three. This shouldn’t need saying, but apparently it did need it.
- Jamie Vardy. Sigh.
The defeat leaves us on 18 points from 33 matches, and we remain 19th on the table. We’re 3 points behind Ipswich Town for 18th. Catching them would be worth almost £2 million, so that’s something to shoot for. We travel to the West Midlands to face Wolves next Saturday and then host fellow relegated side Southampton on 3 May.
Leicester City: Hermansen, Ricardo, Faes, Coady, Thomas, Ndidi, Soumare, De Cordova-Reid, El Khannouss, Mavididi, Vardy
Liverpool: Alisson, Tsimikas, Virgil, Konate, Bradley, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Gakpo, Diaz
Key Moments and Notes
1’- There are more than a few empty seats at the King Power today. It’s hard to blame them, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.
3’- Close! Salah gets the ball all alone ten yards from the goal. He beats Hermansen but it comes off the inside of the far post, rolls across the face of the goal, comes off the near post, and rolls to safety.
10’- Close! Mavididi does incredibly well to turn Bradley inside out. He slips the ball to Ndidi, who hits it first time and beats Alisson, but it cannons off the inside of the post.
15’- Close! Gakpo’s cross finds Salah at the far post but Hermansen makes a fine save to keep it level.
28’- The visitors are on top, of course. But the Foxes’ back line aren’t making it easy for them. Luke Thomas in particular, is making things more difficult than expected for Salah by dint of “actually paying attention.”
39’- From yet another Reds’ corner, Konate gets the ball in the six-yard box. His shot beats Hermansen, but Ndidi makes an acrobatic clearance to put it over.
45’- There’s not much urgency from either side so far. 0-0 is mostly a fair representation, but Liverpool have definitely been the better side.
46’- The second half starts as much of the first half went: Thomas clears a cross intended for Salah.
60’- Facundo Buonanotte and Patson Daka come on for De Cordova-Reid and Vardy.
66’- The Foxes have the ball in the back of the net, but it doesn’t count. Daka shoulder barged Alisson to win the ball and tap it to Coady, who headed into an open net. As per the commentators, that’s only a foul if it’s a goalkeeper. In fairness, it is always a foul if it’s a goalkeeper.
76’- GOAL! Liverpool lay siege to the Leicester goal. Salah hits the post. It comes out to Jota, who hits the post. Thomas goes down in the box with a head injury. The ball continues to ping-pong around and Alexander-Arnold blasts home from a tight angle.
82’- Close! Buonanotte finds Mavididi in space with a perfect ball over the top. The winger holds it and plays a return to the onrushing Buonanotte, but the Argentine puts it wide when he just needed to hit the target.
83’- James Justin and Oliver Skipp are on for Ricardo and Ndidi.
85’- Jeremy Monga comes on for Mavididi who picked up a knock.
90+4’- Daka does very well to hold up a deflected pass and lay it off for Buonanotte. He hits it well, but just gets under it.
90+7’- That’s it. The Foxes are relegated.
