Liverpool 3-0 Leicester: how Klopp won the tactical battle

Leicester City’s perfect away record in the Premier League was ended by the current champions, Liverpool. It’s not the first time Jürgen Klopp’s men have dismantled the Foxes during Brendan Rodgers’ reign, but how difficult is it to counteract the Reds?

Leicester City adopted a similar setup to the games against Manchester City and Arsenal, a transitional 3-4-3 that played like a 5-4-1 in the defensive phases – which, in all honesty, was the majority of the game. The game plan is to be resolute in the first-half, potentially take a chance on the counter-attack, but minimise damage, before playing more expansive and attacking football in the second-half.

It’s quite frustrating to see so many Leicester City fans perplexed, bemused, and complaining about this approach, because it’s not dissimilar to the heroic performances I’ve previously mentioned, and Rodgers was hailed as a “world-class manager” in those fixtures. Instead, the Foxes faithful need to understand just how good Liverpool are, even with a few key players missing.

I also feel the game plan was working for the opening 20 minutes, albeit Liverpool had a lot of possession and were taking shots – none that really troubled Kasper Schmeichel, but Leicester City were finding joy in transition on the left-side. James Justin and Harvey Barnes were combining to create an overload against James Milner, and it resulted in a couple of moments behind the Reds back line, unfortunately nothing stalwart was created.

That’s why the own goal was so pivotal. For me, Jonny Evans had an uncharacteristically poor evening, so often the reliable defensive player, but his decision-making, aerial success rate and on-the-ball presence were all subpar. It’s hard to look passed the own goal and say it didn’t impact his confidence, because prior to the mistake, he was having a solid match.

Tactical issues for Leicester City

Aside from impacting confidence, the goal also disrupted the tactical deployment. As I’ve already mentioned, the idea is to neutralise the oppositions attacking intent in the first-half, but if you concede during these moments, it changes the complexion of the game. It gave Liverpool confidence, as for all their “dominance”, they hadn’t caused the Leicester City goalkeeper many problems, but they now had their important lead.

Interestingly, Milner was utilised as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s replacement and he was a nuisance for the Foxes. Defensively, he was exploitable – as shown by the early exchanges against Justin and Barnes, but in possession, he kept threading the ball through the lines and between Christian Fuchs (LCB) and Evans (CB). This enabled Diogo Jota – whose movements in the half-spaces is exceptional, to receive the ball in problematic areas.

Upon receiving the ball, Jota would head to the byline and pin back the three centre-backs of Leicester City – blocking any balls that would be played across the six-yard box. However, Liverpool have an abundance of quality in their midfield runners, and with the Foxes defensive line pinned back, there was a lot of space on the edge-of-the-box.

This was compounded by Leicester City being outplayed in the middle of the park. I can’t criticise Nampalys Mendy and Youri Tielemans, with the latter looking understandably leggy after two exceptional performance for Belgium. Liverpool were not only more mobile (quicker) in the central-midfield position, they also had an extra man. Their 4-3-3, with Curtis Jones, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Naby Keïta had numerical superiority to the Foxes double pivot.

In essence, I’d suggest it was James Maddison’s job to drop into midfield from his “false” right-wing position to create a stalemate, but he was focused on dealing with explosive full-back, Andy Robertson. The Scottish left-back had a lot of success one-versus-one against Marc Albrighton – who showed his shortcomings as a wing-back for the first-time this season.

There was also an issue of Robertson connecting play with Sadio Mané, and really causing problems for Albrighton and Wesley Fofana. Both Leicester City players were overly aggressive in their personal battles, which is increasingly risky against elite players such as Liverpool’s. As soon as you overcommit – evidenced by the second goal where Albrighton is removed from the game in relative ease by Robertson – you can be exposed.

Offensively, it never really got going for the Foxes. When trying to structure attacking phases, the Liverpool counter-press forced Leicester City to play quickly through the lines (unsuccessfully) and also made Schmeichel feel scared to play short from goal-kicks. Considering how much emphasis there is on building play from the back, as soon as Liverpool neutralised this, there was little time on the ball for the Foxes.

During the game, I understood why Leicester didn’t counter-press themselves, notably because of the success it had in the previously mentioned games – reverting into a defensive structure and playing compact. There’s also the issue of attempting to close down so many “press resistant” players – i.e. players who are elite at evading pressure and thrive in tight spaces. With a midfield three of Wijnaldum, Jones, and Keïta, you’ve got three players who can dissect your press single-handedly, therefore it’s risky to commit to a counter-press.

All-in-all, I think there’s no embarrassment losing away at Anfield – even in the manner we did. I’m still a firm believer of the tactics Brendan Rodgers opted for, and I would suggest that if you’re a fan that applauded him for the performances against Manchester City, Arsenal, and Leeds United, then you should accept yesterday’s loss with little criticisms of the manager.