Leicester City looked to bounce back and react to their embarrassing 4-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest, facing a tough Liverpool side at Anfield on Thursday night.

Diogo Jota scored twice to give Liverpool a glimmer of hope in the title charge whilst Leicester are winless in the Premier League in 2022.

The Foxes did put on a battling display and did show fight. James Maddison, who has been a bright spark in an under-performing side, exchanged a clever one-two with Ademola Lookman but his effort was expertly tipped away by Alisson.

Again, another set-piece had undone Brendan Rodgers’ side.

This time it was Jota who tapped in from close range in the 34th minute following a header by Virgil Van Dijk which was well saved by City number one, Kasper Schmeichel.

The game was then killed off in the 87th minute and any hope of a Leicester equaliser was over as Joel Matip’s pass was slammed home on the turn by Jota and gave the Reds a deserved three points.

  • Was pride restored slightly?
     

Albeit another defeat, the Foxes were applauded off the pitch for their effort and can keep their heads held high showing signs of improvement and hunger with a much-changed line up from the defeat to forest.

Rodgers said: “We restored pride with our performance. You have to be harsh to be clear and that was my thoughts on the weekend. We were nowhere near the level, especially in a derby game. It’s been a tough couple of days for us, and against this level of opponent it was a real challenge.

“But the resilience was there and there were real moments of quality. We dug in, and with better opportunities, we maybe could have got something.

“We’ve played Liverpool home and away, we’ve won one and lost one. It’s not going to define your season what you do against Liverpool."

  • Set-pieces

Rodgers did highlight the obvious problem being set-pieces after the foxes were again, undone by one.

Leicester have conceded more goals from corners (10) than any other Premier League side this season, while their tally of 18 conceded from all set-piece situations equals their number from the entire 2020-21 league campaign.

He said: ”We didn’t give away too many opportunities. But we have an Achilles’ heel at set-pieces and that was a key moment in the game, with half an hour played.

“It was important we stayed in the game, and we did that. We got into some really good areas, but we didn’t play with the quality you need, and they then got the goal late. We were much more competitive, and it was much more like us in terms of spirit.”

  • Changes in squad

The much-changed side have been facing injury problems all season but could afford to drop regular first-team players for the trip to Merseyside.

This included the exclusion of Caglar Soyuncu, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Danny Ward were all left out, with Boubakary Soumaré, Marc Albrighton, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall,, Patson Daka, and Schmeichel regaining their spots.

“I would have made changes anyway. At centre-back, we’ve struggled all season. That's the reality. You need to have consistency, which we’ve not had.

“For us the inconsistency is based around that, with key players out. The two guys had played in the previous game and kept a clean sheet, and I thought they showed physicality and speed and were excellent tonight.

“Cags had played a lot of football; I’d have taken him out earlier if I could have done. It’s the same with Youri. There’s no-one who is guaranteed to play, and the guys know that."

Leicester City host West-Ham at 4:30pm on Sunday at the King Power Stadium.