Liverpool conceded three goals in seven minutes as Leicester emerged 3-1 winners at King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp publicly admitted for the first time that the club’s hope of retaining their Premier League title are over following today’s defeat. It was the champion’s third consecutive loss in the English Premier League (EPL).
The Red’s (Liverpool) poor form in 2021 continued as they suffered a 3-1 reversal at the hands of the Foxes (Leicester City), despite having been in front with less than a quarter of an hour left on the clock.
The Premier League champions have won just three of their last 12 in all competitions and two of the last 10 in the league, with three straight defeats coming against Brighton, Man City and now Leicester City.
The defence had coped well with Leicester’s attacking threat despite the piling list of injured defenders- Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Fabinho are all big names on the list.
Mohamed Salah’s superb finish had given the visitors a deserved lead in the second half.
When Klopp was asked if his team were still in the title race, he said;
Yes. I can’t believe, but yes. I don’t think we can close the gap this year, to be honest. We have to win football games, and a large part of our game today was very good. What we need to try to avoid are mistakes and misunderstandings. In two situations today we didn’t do that and that’s how they were allowed to score two goals. Results are massively related to the performance – we were good enough today to win the game apart from a couple of mistakes towards the end.
For 78 minutes of Saturday’s game at King Power Stadium, it seemed Liverpool were feeling their way back into form.
James Maddison’s free kick levelled the score line, the goal initially ruled out by VAR before the decision was changed again.
Alisson suffered another nightmare as he gifted Jamie Vardy’s Leicester’s second in their comeback.
The Brazilian goalkeeper was caught up in a defensive mix-up with new signing Ozan Kabak, giving Vardy a simple finish goal.
Harvey Barnes delivered the knockout blow as the champions fell to pieces.
Klopp expressed;
Before the game, we all knew that Ozan [Kabak] is a really good player and we know that afterwards as well, but he’s not used to all the things we do. Ali [Alisson] is offensive and likes to come out of his goal. When you are new together this usually happens, but it happens in pre-season. Unfortunately, we’ve not had that. We’re not worrying about the title, we’re not silly.
We have a tough game on Tuesday and then the derby next week. That’s what we’re thinking about.
The red’s boss also spoke about Leicester city’s controversial equaliser, he said:
We concede a goal which is a tough one to take. it was a turning point in the game and the moment they stop for the VAR review, he [free-kick taker James Maddison] didn’t touch the ball yet – it’s someone’s decision who says offside or not and it’s really hard. He has to touch the ball and I saw it now several times.
