What to Expect When You’re Expecting Leicester City

It was the pre-Leicester City press conference and three-quarters of it had passed before anyone asked Jürgen Klopp a single question about the Midlands club. Some were concerned about Philippe Coutinho being given the arm band. Other’s wondered about a potential departure for Daniel Sturridge in January whether on loan or a permanent deal elsewhere. Ditto for Danny Ings.

“We play against Leicester by the way,” Klopp finally said.

Oh, Jürgen, don’t you know we don’t care about the games? We want fabricated drama. We need to debate Virgil van Dijk’s transfer fee. We need your thoughts on Riyad Mahrez, specifically how his staying at Leicester despite being really good parallels Liverpool’s decision to hold onto Coutinho despite the Brazilian also being really good. If only these Premier League managers would do their jobs and find out about the inner-workings of other clubs so that the rest of us can make the tenuous connections that we need to write our special articles.

“Their in a good way,” said Klopp of Leicester City’s form in the season thus far.

“Their main strength is still the same. So they are organized and an incredible threat in counter attacking.

“Jamie Vardy, Mahrez and now Gray are properly involved in the first line-up. It’s really good. It’s a experienced team so it will be difficult.

“They didn’t have the results in the last four games but that means they are more greedy for the points.”

Leicester City are a dangerous team to concede space to. Vardy is always ready to run onto a long ball and their players get forward in numbers on the counter attack. But Liverpool’s speed game isn’t anything to turn your nose up at. Expect Sadio Mané to return to a starting position, perhaps partnering Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah with Coutinho behind and to the left. The match should be full of players running fast.