LCFC Women 4 Liverpool 0: Welcome to Fournado Alley
Leicester pulled off their biggest ever WSL win to take a giant step forward in their quest to avoid the drop. They then watched on as two of their relegation rivals could only draw later in the day.
A Leicester side that spent months marooned to the bottom of the table, without a sniff of a point or a goal, suddenly looks like a WSL side going places.
Willie Kirk’s side have been completely transformed over the last few months. The January signings have added the quality that was sorely lacking in the first part of the season, when they were so often valiant losers. And good results have bred the confidence that was on full display in a thumping victory that takes them ever closer to pulling off a miraculous escape.
Before Christmas, Leicester’s record against non-Big Four teams in the WSL was a sorry P5, L5. Since then, it reads: W3, D1, L2. They have more points than anyone else in the bottom half since the winter break.
Willie save us?
Kirk’s arrival as Leicester manager was a strange affair, a classic palace coup orchestrated from the inside. One minute Lydia Bedford was doing the pre-match press conference, the next Kirk was being proclaimed as Emperor while shady figures in suits were tossing a body bag into the Tiber behind him.
The Director of Football knifing the Manager in the middle of the night almost never works. This time, it looks like it has. Whatever his flaws as a colleague, Kirk has done a fantastic job of setting this Leicester side up to succeed.
He has been intensely pragmatic, willing to sacrifice every game against the top four, but prepared to go all out to win against all the teams around us. Twice he has had a long break to prepare his side for a big game - six weeks before the Brighton game in January, a month for this one - and each time they have responded with an absolute gubbing.
This looks like a team that’s well coached. Leicester were all over Liverpool from the first minute. They forced a corner and tried the same routine that worked for Hannah Cain’s winner against the same opponents a couple of months ago. This time Cain’s shot was blocked, but the pressure didn’t abate.
Good players equal good results
The managerial change is one reason for the turnaround in results. Another is the simple fact that Kirk has better players to call on than Bedford did. Four of the team that started here were January signings, and a fifth - Cain - missed the start of the season through injury.
Cain is the lifeblood of this side, bringing an energy and edge that can sometimes be lacking, and she’s first in the middle of every celebration. Of which there were quite a few as the afternoon wore on.
Alongside Cain, it’s Ruby Mace who has had the biggest impact on Leicester’s style of play. The Bedford era was defined by a lot of energy with little quality. Mace has helped to reset the balance, adding some real ability on the ball in midfield, while also constantly recovering possession and being on hand to receive a pass.
She’s also an adaptable player, able to break forward to overload the defence. She hit a snap shot into the side netting from one of these runs early on, then took the corner that led to Leicester’s opener.
Remy Siemsen is another of the January junta. She’s been a little in and out of the side, often sacrificed in the games against top sides where Kirk goes for the all-out defensive tactic. When she does play, though, she adds a genuine striker’s instinct, stretching the pitch with runs in behind and sniffing out half-chances in the box.
It was by chasing down a lost cause that she played a key role in the first goal of the afternoon. She forced a corner out of nowhere, then did well to keep Cain’s ball into the box alive, teeing up Josie Green for a shot that took an enormous deflection into the Liverpool net.
A few minutes later Dee Flection struck again to divert Carrie Jones’ shot up over Rachael Laws and in off the bar. Suddenly Leicester were in danger of running riot. Another corner ended up in a chaotic goalmouth scramble, before Laws made a brilliant save to push Siemsen’s shot onto the post. From the resulting corner Ashleigh Plumptre headed into the side netting.
It was the same story after half time. Leicester again forced a corner inside a couple of minutes and this time Plumptre made no mistake, nodding in from close range to more or less finish the game as a contest.
Liverpool probably feel a little unfortunate to have been beaten so heavily, with two deflected goals putting them on the back foot so early in the game. But Leicester won this by taking the game to their opponents and finally got the luck in front of goal that has deserted them for most of the season.
The second half featured more work for Janina Leitzig, the other major January addition, who was forced into a couple of good saves to prevent any sniff of a comeback. It also featured the best goal of the four, a lovely cross from left back Courtney Nevin for Missy Goodwin to stick a bullet header into the top corner.
That late goal made no difference to the result, but it could still have an impact on how the season ends up. Leicester’s goal difference is now six ahead of Brighton’s, a big cushion in a relegation battle that’s going to go down to the wire.
The week ahead
It’s a relegation battle that’s fast descending into a sort of madness. Everton have been involved in two crazy games against our relegation rivals while Leicester have been out of action. First, they came back from 2-0 down only to lose 3-2 to Brighton, then came back properly from 2-0 down to beat Reading last weekend.
Tottenham followed up a 3-3 draw against Aston Villa with a 2-2 draw against Brighton on Saturday afternoon and are now only a point above the Foxes. West Ham are probably safe, but have only picked up two points in eight games and still have to play three of the four teams below them.
One of those is against Leicester, who face Arsenal and then Chelsea, before finishing the season by hosting the Hammers and visiting Brighton on the last day. Normally, Arsenal would be one of Kirk’s write-off games. With the Gunners crippled by injuries and off the back of a potentially draining Champions League game against Wolfsburg on Monday, perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope for an upset.
Either way, this victory was a giant step forward towards safety. Leicester still have two more games against bottom half teams on the schedule, and one more win would almost certainly be enough to finish off the greatest escape.
