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Leicester City vs Liverpool

BPL 2018-19 – Leicester City vs Liverpool Match Preview



We’ve got a very interesting game here at King Powers Stadium. 2016 champions Leicester City host current league leaders Liverpool! Leicester have made a very good start with 2 wins out of 3 and so have Liverpool who hold a 100% record. Liverpool are the favourites, but Leicester City are going to be no easy nut to crack, especially with their superb support. Could we see Liverpool have their first droppage of points, or will they prove again why people consider them as one of the top contenders? Let’s get into it deeper.


Leicester City


It’s been a really good start to the season by Leicester so far. After that opening day loss where they got unlucky against Man United, Leicester have bounced back with 2 league wins and a dominant cup win during the midweek which has put the team spirits very high right now. Last week, Leicester picked up a very good away win at Southampton without their main man Vardy who is suspended. After trailing 1-0, Leicester pulled it back and thanks to Demarai Gray and a late goal by Harry Maguire they came out as winners 1-2. 6 points from 9 and a successful cup game is definitely something that Leicester fans can cheer about and it has absolutely lifted Claude Puel’s job security at Leicester.


Now, focus turns on the toughest team Leicester will face to date. The mighty Liverpool and their deadly attacking trio. Leicester have had decent success against Liverpool in recent years at King Power’s Stadium winning 3 of the 4 previous meetings against Liverpool here including twice in the league. Leicester City have been a tough nut for Liverpool, they like to get forward and we don’t expect this fixture to be any different. Leicester may be on the back foot for a lot of the game, but they are not the type of team who will just sit back and clear the ball to wherever at every possession. We can expect them to cause Liverpool problems with counter attacking football, they have some rapid players in that attack.


Team news wise, Jamie Vardy is still out which is a huge blow as Vardy has a fantastic record against the big 6 recently, scoring past every big 6 club last season and already scoring against Man United this season. Kelechi Iheanacho is expected to slot in for Vardy and Kelechi hasn’t had the best of success at Leicester but maybe a mid week goal will lift his confidence up. We shouldn’t expect many changes from Leicester compared to the line-up last week, it could very likely stay exactly the same as it did against Southampton. Expect Leicester to have a go and who knows they may cause Liverpool problems as usual at home.


Liverpool


It’s been a great start to the season for Liverpool. Backline looking better than it ever did under Klopp. 3 games 3 wins 3 clean sheets and they are TOP OF THE LEAGUE. The attack of Liverpool haven’t peaked yet this season, but their midfield, defence and the new GK have been immense which has allowed Liverpool to dominate games and be comfortable even at 1-0 leads. We’ve seen a new Liverpool side so far this season, these 1-0 leads seem very safe, we saw them protect it against Palace, then do it again against Brighton and that’s something Liverpool used to struggle to do. Van Dijk has been a tank at the back, Allisson is proving why Liverpool paid the big money and yeah just overall Liverpool look incredibly good all around the pitch. Out of the front 3, Mane and Salah are scoring goals, Firmino is yet to score but he’s got a couple of assists and the goals will start flying for him too eventually. Naby Keita is another stand out player, he’s been fantastic for Liverpool in his first season there so far.


Now, Liverpool go to a place that they haven’t had much success in recent years as mentioned. However, this is the best Liverpool side in recent years and you’d expect them to win at Leicester given the squad they have. It’s essential that they snuff out any Leicester’s counter attacks with players like Gray and Iheanacho. We’ve seen Liverpool sniff out a good attacking Palace team in their first away game, so their fans should be heading into this game full of confidence regardless of how good Leicester themselves look currently. Going forward, of course there should be no worries, Salah Mane and Firmino should be able to put on a good showing as usual.


Looking at team news, Dejan Lovren is still not going to start and Joe Gomez will probably fill in for him again. In general Joe Gomez has slotted in very well and we may have taken the starting spot from Lovren in general with his performances so far. Oxlade-Chamberlain is of course still out with the long term injury. Otherwise, everyone is healthy and we should expect Liverpool to field the unchanged line-up for the 4th game in a row as it has worked perfectly so far.


What to Expect


We should expect a Liverpool win. Whether we’ll see a crazy amount of goals like this fixture has given us recently is a 50/50, depends if Leicester can create enough chances to score. Leicester missing Vardy will come back to haunt them since he’s their best big game player and yes Iheanacho is a nice replacement but he’s not the type of big game player like Vardy is and his record with Leicester is not something to be happy about. Leicester should create a few chances, we have no doubt about it but essentially missing Vardy will be costly. Liverpool on the other hand have 3 elite finishers going forward and just overall their team is better. Expect Liverpool to have more of the possession, more chances and well with better finishers on the team they should score more goals and win. Betting wise a Liverpool -1.5 AH is worth a try at 2.30. And our prediction is either 0-2 or a 1-3 Liverpool win.




Match Odds (TonyBet)


Leicester City Win – 6.70


Draw – 4.80


Liverpool Win – 1.47



KICK OFF – 1st September 12:30am UK Time

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