Local lads could become legends
TALKING POINTS FROM FAMOUS WIN OVER LIVERPOOL
FROM the injury list and the quick turnaround to the quality of the opponent, the odds were stacked against Leicester City, and that’s why Tuesday night will be remembered as a famous win.
But more than that, it will also be a victory that is treasured.
Supporters love a performance characterised by determination, where players put their bodies on the line.
Liverpool had scored in all of their other games this season, but City were hellbent on making sure they wouldn’t at the King Power Stadium.
But those displays are extra special for fans when leading the way for the team are lads who have grown up just a few miles from the stadium, when the heroes hail from Syston and Shepshed.
Because Luke Thomas and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall were imperious.
Thomas is not only improving every game now, but taking bigger and bigger strides forward.
It may be that in his career he will never face as difficult an opponent as Mo Salah in his current form, and yet it could not be said for one second that the Egyptian terrorised the young City left-back.
A picture from the changing room posted by James Maddison after the match showed a slip of paper pinned near Thomas’s seat with a picture of Salah and possibly some instructions on how to deal with him. He stuck to that task superbly.
But there was a fearlessness there too. He’s becoming a more proactive defender now.
His tally of seven interceptions was the most by a single player in a single game this Premier League season.
He’s not just responding to danger, he’s spotting it and cutting it out at source, showing the agility to intervene and nab the ball.
For Dewsbury-Hall, it was the showing of a box-to-box midfield all-rounder.
He contributes in both boxes, and has the stamina to get between them for 90 minutes.
He recovered possession more than any City player on the pitch, and completed more passes too, including the all-important one for Ademola Lookman’s goal.
Both players feel like throwbacks too. Thomas, who seemed an attackfirst, defend-second full-back when he emerged on the scene, now prides himself on his defensive resilience.
When Lookman spun Trent Alexander-Arnold and then motored forward to get into the box for his goal, he left the Liverpool full-back in the dust.
It felt like Thomas, right, would not let that happen. He would always be there, chasing Salah down.
Dewsbury-Hall, in his all-black boots, puts maximum effort into every action.
With stamina and a high level of competence in all of the basics, he can be a very effective footballer, and Brendan Rodgers is starting to talk about his importance to the team, not something you get very often for a player who only made his first Premier League start a few weeks ago.
They love it too. They love wearing the blue of Leicester.
Thomas could be seen celebrating Sadio Mane’s miss, while both went wild at Lookman’s goal, DewsburyHall on the verge of jumping into the crowd.
Because of their enjoyment, because of the effort they put in on the pitch, and because they grew up around the corner, fans can see themselves in them.
There is so much that could happen, but right now, you get the sense that both could go on to become club legends.
■ Given all of the first nine partnerships would include one of Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu or Wesley Fofana, a centre-back pairing of Daniel Amartey and Wilfred Ndidi was actually City’s 10th choice.
So how did they stop one of the world’s best attacks, one that last failed to score in a game in April, from finding the net? Firstly, an exceptional goalkeeping display.
Secondly, a little bit of luck. There were some poor finishes among those Liverpool chances.
But also perhaps because they knew their focus was to defend.
In a game against Liverpool, where a team knows they will have plenty of work to do around their own box, thoughts on building play and how best to work possession fall by the wayside.
It has felt sometimes this season that a focus on playing the best passes and making contributions on the ball has distracted City’s defenders from the fundamental aspect of their game.
The emphasis was very much on defending for City’s two centre-backs on Tuesday night, and they excelled at it. Buoyed by the penalty save that gave them a clean sheet to fight for, they did so with grit and guts, getting themselves in the way of every shot or cross in their vicinity. Liverpool had 67 touches in the box, the most by a side not to score since Opta’s records began.
But there were not many times when the Reds actually got behind the Amartey-Ndidi barricade.
Given their effectiveness, it’s a shame that even City’s 10th choice centre-back pairing won’t last more than one more game, as they both fly to the Africa Cup of Nations after the Norwich City clash.
Rodgers will then have to find a new duo.
But he has perhaps learned that if instructed to focus solely on defending, the pairing may be able to keep the club’s clean-sheet tally rising.
■ Can City stick with a system that doesn’t last 90 minutes?
After deploying a diamond midfield against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, Rodgers chose the set-up again on Tuesday. So far, it’s been successful.
It works because City have the right personnel for it, in that Dewsbury-Hall and Hamza Choudhury or Youri Tielemans can get up and down and side to side without losing too much energy or quality on the ball.
It helps too because it gives James Maddison plenty of freedom, and provides a partner for Jamie Vardy, who has looked better next to another striker over this calendar year.
That both Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho are selfless and creative makes it effective too.
The question now is whether Rodgers will stick with it for games not against Liverpool.
It depends on the personnel, and City look to be running short on strikers for the second role up front with Daka injured and Iheanacho heading to Afcon, albeit Harvey Barnes could play there.
The winger returns against Norwich and his availability may prompt Rodgers to revert to a more traditional shape anyway.
The other question is whether it is a sustainable formation to stick with.
Because of the energy that needs to be exerted to make it work, mainly by the midfielders and full-backs, Rodgers says it can’t be used for 90 minutes.
He switched to a 5-3-2 at Anfield, and then a 4-3-3 on Tuesday night, both with under an hour played.
It will be a test of the players’ tactical flexibility if they have to change systems at some point in every game.
But it will be considered going forward because it does bring the best out of plenty of players.
■ Another new system that there will be a debate over is man-marking at corners.
Finally, Rodgers gave the public what they wanted, making drastic changes to City’s defensive corner set-up.
To go man-for-man felt like Rodgers was stepping out of his comfort zone, perhaps through desperation.
He said he needed to do it to “break the cycle” which had seen City concede consistently from setplays.
Liverpool had 12 corners and did not score from any, so that sounds like it was a success.
But when it’s considered that Liverpool had four good chances in the final 10 minutes, and all of them from corners, the level of that success will be questioned.
Diogo Jota, Mane, and Joel Matip all missed headers when wellplaced, while Virgil van Dijk had a shot saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
Further experimentation, and maybe a few tweaks, will be needed, but it’s worth seeing how the manmarking system gets on against a side that’s not the best at attacking set-pieces in the league like Liverpool are.
And it’s a plus point for Rodgers too, for stepping away from his established methods and trying something new.
■ Not every win resets the mood, but the nature of the 1-0 victory over Liverpool means there is optimism for 2022 that simply wasn’t there before.
Quickfire exits from the Europa League and Carabao Cup as well as stumbling form in the Premier League had not left supporters enthused going into the new year, but these types of victories completely turn the tide.
All of a sudden, there is belief City can qualify for Europe. The injury lay-offs for key players don’t seem quite so long. Glory is possible.
But with just one win, as significant as it may be, it is a fragile optimism at the moment, and it will dissipate completely if it isn’t backed up with a good performance against bottom-of-the-table Norwich on New Year’s Day.