Liverpool 2-1 Leicester City: 5 Men who were brilliant for Jurgen Klopp
Saturday’s pick of the Premier League games was the battle between the 1st and 3rd at Anfield. Liverpool welcomed Leicester City looking to continue their 100% record in the league so far. The Reds had not faced defeat at home in the Premier League for 43 games, a period where they had won 33 times. Jurgen Klopp’s men were also on a run of 16 consecutive Premier League victories, a club record and bettered in the league only by Manchester City, who had managed 18!
Leicester City was no pushover either, and they had been going from strength to strength under the guidance of former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers. Interestingly, only Liverpool and Manchester City had managed to gather more Premier League points than Leicester City since Rodgers took charge. As such, Jurgen Klopp was not taking his opponents lightly and he named a strong team for the tie.
Liverpool Starting XI: Adrian; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dejan Lovren, Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson; Georginio Wijnaldum, Fabinho, James Milner; Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane
Liverpool piled on the pressure on the visitors from the kick-off and took the lead through Sadio Mane in the 40th minute. James Maddison equalized for Leicester City in the 80th minute and it looked like Liverpool’s 100% record in the league was coming to an end. However, James Milner scored from the spot in injury time to help the Reds win the game 2-1. Here are 5 men who were brilliant for Liverpool.
#5 Fabinho
The Brazilian anchored the midfield on the day and allowed Liverpool to attack with full freedom. Fabinho provided added cover to the defense and helped Liverpool to deal with the threat of the visitors. The Brazilian had 82 touches on the ball and was an integral part of Liverpool’s build-up play. He attempted the most passes in the game – 65 and also registered the most accurate passes – 53.
Fabinho was not shy of doing the dirty work and also registered 3 tackles in the game. The Brazilian even attempted 3 dribbles with a 67% success rate and was one of the reasons why Liverpool managed to overcome Leicester City.