Leicester City v Liverpool, SS1, 8pm

paulie21

Leicester's first game since the sacking of Claudio Ranieri was sacked. Caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare takes charges so lets hope it's not a tragedy for Liverpool.

Captain Henderson is out with a foot injury and Dejan Lovern misses out with a knee injury while there's doubts over Ragnar Klavan and Mr Glass due to a virus.

The home side will assess the fitness of Islam Slimani and Leonardo Ulloa, who are still nursing respective groin and thigh problems.

A Jamie Vardy double settled this fixture last season while Liverpool won 4-1 in the reverse fixture in September

Said my peace in the Ranieri thread
The Leicester players can't hide now

Red Kev

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

• Leicester won this fixture 2-0 last season with Jamie Vardy scoring twice, but that is their only victory in the last nine Premier League meetings (D2, L6).
• Liverpool claimed a 4-1 victory when these teams met in September and could beat the Foxes home and away in the same season for the first time since 2001-02.

Leicester City

• The Foxes have lost their last five league games - the only previous reigning top-flight champions to lose six in a row was Everton in 1928-29.
• Leicester have kept just two clean sheets in their last 22 games in all competitions, and none in their last 10.
• They are the only team in the top five European leagues not to have scored a league goal in 2017 - they have gone six games without a goal.
• Leicester could equal the club record of seven league matches without a goal, set in the old Division Two between November 1987 and January 1988.
• Jamie Vardy's goal against Sevilla ended his nine-match barren streak. He has scored in just one of his last 18 Premier League games.

Liverpool

• Liverpool's victory over Tottenham in their last match ended a winless run of five league games.
• The Reds have gone three matches without an away win in the Premier League (D2, L1).
• Sadio Mane has been directly involved in 15 Premier League goals, more than any other Liverpool player this season (11 goals, four assists).
• Adam Lallana has failed to score or provide an assist in his six league appearances in 2017 after supplying four goals and four assists in his final seven league matches last year.

SAM prediction:

• Most probable score: 1-1
• Probability of draw: 24%
• Probability of home win: 30%
• Probability of away win: 46%

GavRedKing

I cant see Leicester turning it around straight off the bat.

If they get anything from this game its a bonus, theyve much "easier" games against direct rivals coming up and thats where there ability to stay will chances will be tested.

Liverpool win by 2 goals tonight.

Hococop

Be interesting to see the Leicester fans reaction tonight

GavRedKing

Hococop wrote: »

Be interesting to see the Leicester fans reaction tonight

I think the very least they expect is a performance.

They were dire away to Sevilla but stuck at it and battled to a pretty good 2-1 loss.

If they put in the effort tonight and get the wrong result, they wont take as much flack as theyed expect.

If continue where they left off under Claudio they'll be booed off.

If Leicester manage an unlikely win, they'll leapfrog their rivals and up into 15th too, their goal difference is the 4th worst in the league at the moment, it mightn not be vital at the moment but as the games tick by, it could be pivotal.

Harry Palmr

Well hoping for a defend first point at this stage of the season at home (esp in the circumstances) is a no no so they really are obliged to come out and play

If can plays tonight and we lose or draw he will invariably get criticized. Already folks commenting how its such a big game for him.

Apart from the Spurs game we've been dogsh1t for 2017 so if tonight is unlike the Spurs performance and more like the rest we might need to look past Can for the reason why.

Can should be fine in midfield with Wij & lallana though.

5starpool

Augeo wrote: »

If can plays tonight and we lose or draw he will invariably get criticized. Already folks commenting how its such a big game for him.

Apart from the Spurs game we've been dogsh1t for 2017 so if tonight is unlike the Spurs performance and more like the rest we might need to look past Can for the reason why.

Can should be fine in midfield with Wij & lallana though.

If Can plays tonight and he is bad he'll get criticised, whether we win or lose, same as most other players. He has mostly been below what he was in the second half of last season so far this one, but hopefully he is able to show what we know he can do.

I'm not sure how this game will go. I assume Leicester will do what so many teams recently have done against us and defend deep and force us wide. If we play well though we will be able to break them down anyhow, but not conceding is key I think tonight for Liverpool.

NukaCola

Leicester have 0 clean sheets in the last 10, with a GD -11 in that time frame and only 2 wins. Nailed on 2-0 win for them tonight.

Harry Palmr

Starting XI vs Leicester:

---

Mignolet;
Clyne, Matip, Lucas, Milner;

---

Can;

---

Wijnaldum,

---

Lallana,
Mané--Firmino--Coutinho;

Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Klavan, Moreno, Stewart, Woodburn, Origi

paulie21

paulie21

murpho999

Liverpool over the last few seasons seem to have regularly encounter struggling teams that raise their game on the day and perform.

Would not be shocked if Leicester rally and get a result tonight as their players have had a lot of criticism over the last few days.

davycc

I hate Leicester City as much as the next person and hope they go down too.

Hoping they show up today and nick a winner in the last few minutes.
3-2 Vardy hatrick would be nice!

D0NNELLY

Think a lack of match sharpness will hurt Liverpool tonight.

5starpool

D0NNELLY wrote: »

Think a lack of match sharpness will hurt Liverpool tonight.

Ah here. I hope you are being funny on some level I don't get in terms of getting in the excuses early, but that is one excuse that won't be used.

GreNoLi

Come on the foxes, a champions league return is still within your grasp.

5starpool

GreNoLi wrote: »

Come on the foxes, a champions league return is still within your grasp.

Definitely, in just over a week.

8-10

Firmino hattrick in a 4-1 win is my prediction

sabat

Can't see past a ritual bummening of the champions, Liverpool by 5 or 6.

billymitchell

I see Leicester winning this, Liverpool seem to always drop their game when expected to win.

RayCon

I fear the inevitable "team in desperate need for points beat Liverpool" result tonight

mada999

Liverpool really have no excuses tonight.. we need the win and Leicester need the win too... hopefully Liverpool can come out of the blocks quick and get an early goal.. put them under serious pressure....

come on you redmen.... 1-3 is my prediction....hope we get 3pts... dont care how it happens...

mada999

RayCon wrote: »

I fear the inevitable "team in desperate need for points beat Liverpool" result tonight

hopefully not we seem to come up against teams who sack their manager..quite weird...

Hopefully we kick them when they are down..

jayo26

Handy win for Liverpool they are way too good.

Harry Palmr

Don't worry we'll hand them a goal in the first 5 minutes.

Osmosis Jones

Studs down on Mane from Vardy 30 seconds in, ref doesn't spot it and Mane's down injured.

paulie21

Mane down

Francie Barrett

There really should be no excuses tonight. Leicester are in disarray with a leaky defence, have a caretaker manager, have been dumped out of the Cup and had a tough game against Sevilla recently. Our lads have been doing a warm weather training camp for the last week, should be fully motivated and fresh and had plenty of times to focus on tactics for this tie.

mada999

that's filth.... he should have done a Hererra there and rolled around on the ground there...

Harry Palmr

The NBC commentator was busy reading out some guff for about 30 seconds before he looked up from his sheet of paper.

Osmosis Jones

Can't get out of our half, Leicester fired up

murpho999

Osmosis Jones wrote: »

Studs down on Mane from Vardy 30 seconds in, ref doesn't spot it and Mane's down injured.

Harsh, Vardy was entitled to go for it.

Not every challenge is a foul you know.

I still want football to be a contact sport and sometimes players will get injured.

mada999

ref seems to be letting challenges go which will suit Leicester better

Osmosis Jones

murpho999 wrote: »

Harsh, Vardy was entitled to go for it.

Not every challenge is a foul you know.

I still want football to be a contact sport and sometimes players will get injured.

Not sure what's harsh, didn't pass judgement on him just said what happened. Yeah Vardy challenged but he still got Mane with his studs.

mada999

murpho999 wrote: »

Harsh, Vardy was entitled to go for it.

Not every challenge is a foul you know.

I still want football to be a contact sport and sometimes players will get injured.

he was entitled to get stuck in but he deffo followed through and knew what he was at imo

mada999

Leicester going very direct so far, which is a good way playing against us

Osmosis Jones

I'm not sure we've put two passes together.

livinginkorea

Good save there.

~Rebel~

murpho999 wrote: »

Harsh, Vardy was entitled to go for it.

Not every challenge is a foul you know.

I still want football to be a contact sport and sometimes players will get injured.

Yeah was fair enough imo, and the ground gave way a bit on him, so he slid on.

Quick start to the game, but played in the right spirits so far.

mada999

Liverpool need to put a few hard tackles in soon i think.... take the sting out

Osmosis Jones

They've had two shots on target from two long throws what are we at?

Vicxas

All Leicester atm. Just need to weather this early storm.

5starpool

Leicester fired up for this. Hopefully they don't score soon and we can grind them down a bit. Far more energetic start from them than I expected. They have had the first couple of chances of the game anyhow, Mignolet with a couple of saves.

mada999

these Long throws are doing serious damage so far

~Rebel~

Good save Mig!

Really need to hold out for this first 15 or 20 min onslaught.. if its still 0-0 then I think we'll be fine.

Osmosis Jones

Firmino needs to relieve the pressure, keep possession for a moment.

Francie Barrett

wake up

murpho999

Leicester really looked up for this.

Closing down like crazy.

5starpool

Mane lucky to not get at least a yellow for that challenge on N'Didi.