Winter Faeshion
[ Liverpool 2 – 1 Leicester].
When Wout Faes scored his second own goal in the space of seven minutes, it was natural to seek out the stats wizards. Alas, he merely joined the hall of fame of Premier League OG brace-hitters as its fourth member. In that, he joins Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher. He wasn’t even the fastest! Michael Proctor achieved it faster for (or should it be considered against?) Sunderland.
READ MORE: A Very Liverpool Thanksgiving by Chris Hallenbrook
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If you ask me, the first goal should be credited to Alexander-Arnold anyway. His pass appeared to have been on target.
Curiosities aside, this game should have ended with a higher scoreline, and Liverpool walked away the justified winner. It wasn’t a pretty game by any means, but the Reds had the better opportunities overall, with three of their misses being downright shocking. Nunez had one of those as one has come to expect (I can’t wait for his sights to finally be properly trained), Salah another, and captain Henderson the third. All three should have ended in the back of the net.
Leicester played well and controlled the game in a couple of stretches. However, the Foxes simply didn’t get that many good chances.
In that regard, Liverpool’s biggest asset today was man-of-the-match Thiago. He did everything in the midfield, but especially so in stopping Leicester, time and again. Some of his interventions were crucial and exquisitely timed. The cliché is that games like this are won in the midfield, and it applied today. But they are also won elsewhere, and of all people, Trent’s defensive effort (while not error-free) was a key contributing factor to the Foxes’ lack of quality opportunities. Considering that, due to his reputation as a lackluster defender, he is being targeted and intentionally overloaded by every team these days, he did an excellent job in the back.
Hendo, on the other hand, started the game very poorly. It cost the Reds the opening goal, and almost a second one later on. Thankfully the Liverpool captain returned to being his normal self. Jordan Henderson’s standard for Jordan Henderson is, after all, very high. Otherwise, that midfield cliché could have proven itself in quite the opposite direction.
And so it ends in another three points. Maybe not the prettiest ones – that “Faes do” notwithstanding – but we’ll take ‘em. The winter has so far been good to the Reds, and long may it continue.
There’s quite a bit of ground to make up.
