Liverpool 3 Leicester City 1: Introducing ‘The Gerrit Forward Jar’
Leicester City continued to play the Enzo way at Anfield on Wednesday and although we may have paid the price with the result, there were some positives on and off the field for Becky Taylor.
From the ridiculous to the sublime
Watching Leicester at Anfield over recent years has been an experience.
There have been some ridiculous moments that have seen us lose games: Marc Albrighton giving away a last-minute penalty, THAT double substitution, Wout Faes's own goal extraordinaire to name a few. It's been comical.
Bowing out of the Carabao Cup for this season was less ridiculous and more sublime - from them, unfortunately. Dominik Szoboszlai's rocket was the obvious pick, but Diogo Jota, with his inevitable goal, also produced a very good finish.
It felt slightly uneasy we didn't do something terrible to gift the win.
Enzo's style remained clear, even if it was not to some of our fans’ tastes (more on this later). In the end, the biggest positives were getting out with no injuries, having Conor Coady finally make his debut, and the best run back down the M6 after a midweek game I've ever known.
Oh, and surviving the 'threat to life' weather warning of Storm Agnes.
Up for the cup (draw)
I'm not sure what it is about cup draws, but I love them. You're resigned to the fact you're probably going to get a team in your league at home but you're dreaming of a glamour away tie*.
*to be clear, glamour away tie for me is a new ground - preferably against a team from League Two.
Drawing Liverpool away burst that cup draw buzz bubble in an instant, immediately declaring there's no chance I'd be making another trip to Anfield to watch us lose in ridiculous fashion.
A sucker for punishment, I found myself back on the M6 hoping for it being 9th time lucky for me to see us win there.
Another 2,000+ Leicester fans made the trip which is a great effort, so kudos to all of the other people daft enough to travel to see our annual loss at Anfield.
Worth the trip
A personal highlight before the game even kicked off was Liverpool fans unveiling their large flyer into the Kop end back-to-front. They do it every other week, yet managed this entertaining faux-pas.
The smiles from that got bigger when we bagged an opener in the third minute. It was one of many great bits of play, moving the ball quickly and proof Enzo-ball provides brilliant counter-attacking prowess too.
Kasey McAteer, the goal machine! At the time I'm not sure any of the Leicester fans appreciated the quality of the goal - the run, weight of pass and finish were all brilliant.
On a night when our fans weren't in the finest of voice, that moment provided some consolation in the journey having some worth. There's nothing quite like the sound of away fans cheering from the other end after scoring or, more personally, celebrating an away goal with your little brothers.
Yunus continued to impress in the first half, albeit with a few wayward simple passes. This was his best performance in a Leicester shirt by some distance.
GET IT FORWARD!
The first half felt like one for the neutrals. Even at only 0-1, there was plenty of action. Jakub Stolarczyk made some great saves and we continued to play to the Enzo philosophy.
Don't get me wrong, I almost have kittens about 50 times a game with the style we play, but it still doesn't implore me to shout “FORWARD” every 2 seconds of the team playing it around at the back like many near us. I actually had to turn around and laugh at a guy at one point, amid his meltdown of shouting to 'get rid' for the 15th time.
I've got a proposition. Every time someone shouts 'FORWARD', 'GET IT FORWARD' or 'JUST CLEAR IT' they need to put a £1 in a pot like a swear jar.
There's a time and a place for going long, which we do (and did), but people need to realise it's not even close to being our first choice option. We will lose the ball and concede a few goals from playing this way, but we will also break the press and score many too.
Playing a second-string team, notably without the key player for the system in Harry Winks, and still backing ourselves to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool at Anfield was refreshing.
Cesare Casadei still flattered to deceive a little for me. I'd argue if he was of the level I'd hoped and expected, some of the good quick ball we played first half could have amounted to more.
Off-field entertainment
After all the hard work first half to keep Liverpool at bay, letting them score early after the break was a complete disaster. If I’m honest, as soon as that Cody Gakpo goal went in, I knew we were finished.
As Liverpool came into it second half and we slowed down, one Liverpool fan decided he wanted to be the star of the show. Gesturing and mouthing off in the Leicester fans’ direction, he received pelters back in retaliation.
'He's going to cry in a minute' rang out from the away end, followed by a stern talking to by a steward. With his mate trying to show off his muscles to our fans (it was as strange as it sounds), a senior steward arrived.
It looked as though he said an expletive to the steward and continued to gesture to our fans which meant his time was up. He was marched out of the ground much to our delight for another off-the-field moment of entertainment.
AOB
Although it wasn't our finest night, our fans chanting to Liverpool subs Virgil Van Dijk and Darwin Nunez 'you're just a shit Harry Souttar/Andy Carroll' provided some additional light entertainment which deserved a mention.
Although I didn't have one, beers being £3.50 also deserve a shout-out, even if it was Carlsberg.
I'm still unsure how Wilf didn’t equalise and likely take us to penalties before their third, but maybe he did us a favour in not having to go through the pain of another shoot-out loss.
Pardon the cliché, but there are plenty of positives to take. Now get me back to the Championship for more fun.
