Premier League Hit and Miss; Muhammad Salah's struggle sums up Liverpool's shock defeat to Leicester

As Liverpool is rocked, Salah suffers a rare off-day.

In their previous nine computer games, Leicester had surrendered 26 goals, but Liverpool had scored at least once in each of their final 34. So when Mohamed Salah attempted to take an early penalty that he had earned, Salah, the Premier League's leading scorer and a man who had converted his previous 15 consecutive spot-kicks in the competition, saw his awkwardly tame exertion pushed away by Kasper Schmeichel sooner than starting to move the rebound against the crossbar. Leicester took advantage of that second, standing firm in response to prolonged Liverpool pressure early than replacement Ademola Lookman's reigning champions, while Salah wilted. Salah, who will soon join up with his country for the African Cup of Nations, was not one to pass up opportunities. Sadio Mane squandered a golden opportunity for a one-on-one matchup. Diogo Jota missed a goal when he could have scored. On the other hand, Salah's problems best summed up Liverpool's night.

Jurgen Klopp suggestion

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp claims that if they perform as they did against Leicester City, they will not catch Manchester City. After Mohamed Salah's penalty was saved, Ademola Lookman came off the bench to seal Liverpool's fate.

Condition on Klopp's side

Klopp's side had a horrible night, unable to cut the six-point deficit to Premier League leaders City, and their unsustainability was to account. The city has two games before Liverpool's next Premier League match against Chelsea on January 2, putting Klopp's side 12 points behind the leaders if the city extends their winning streak. He stated that because Chelsea and I play against one other, we both cannot win and that it was not our intention today to allow the city to sprint away or anything. He went on to say that if we play like we did tonight, we won't have to worry about catching city. We can win regular football games if we play our typical football. He also stated that we do not have a proper understanding for tonight but that finding this answer is my first focus, not the gap to the city at this time.

He knows it's easy to say, but even if they had got the win 2-1, he wouldn't have enjoyed it. He didn't care for our football game that night, which was not cool. He went on to say that they were just not themselves tonight, that they were pressing but not taking advantage of opportunities, that they wasted free headers, and so on. Finally, he believed they earned it.

Rodgers: It was a valiant attempt.

After a tough December in which they won just one of their previous six games and were knocked out of the Europa League and the Carabao Cup, victory injected new energy into Leicester's season, propelling them to ninth place and five points off the top six. They still warranted Kasper Schmeichel to be at his strongest. The goalkeeper - who has only kept two clean sheets since the start of the season - made sure they remained in the game in the first half to avenge their Carabao Cup setback last week and take away the pain of admitting six goals against Manchester City on Boxing Day. According to him, they started playing a diamond for an hour to keep the danger in the side, then altered to 4-3-3 and showed resiliency. [Kiernan Dewsbury- Hall's] enthusiasm is contagious, and they needed it on the squad. So much effort had to be put in by Kiernan and Hamza [Choudhury].

Salah stated that he just thought, Let's go back to basics with our set-piece defense, an old school system. Let's put up a good fight to show. This is what they did tonight. The center halves were outstanding, but everyone contributed. They accomplished well as a group.

Liverpool is surprised by Leicester as Mohamed Salah fails a penalty.

Lookman's second-half goal halted Klopp's side's 10-match undefeated run in all leagues. Liverpool is six points behind league leaders Manchester City, who play Brentford on Wednesday. Second-placed Liverpool was defeated for the first moment since a 3-2 defeat at West Ham in November, and they paid dearly for squandered opportunities.

Salah's first-half penalty was saved by Kasper Schmeichel, as Liverpool struggled to convert in the league for the first time since March. We were not good enough, according to Klopp. We still had plenty of opportunities. It wasn't proper what we did with the ball. We had a poor performance and could have resisted better. We typically do that; it's difficult to explain why we didn't do it today. There were a lot of performances that weren't up to par. Liverpool's disaster against Covid and Leicester's damaged squad, which was thrashed 6-3 by City on Sunday, adds added pressure to win their first game of 2022 against title contenders Chelsea on Sunday. Klopp continued that It's a large gap, but it's not his concern right now. They have a better chance of winning games if they play our typical football, Liverpool style.

Comments of Brendan Rodgers, The manager of the Leicester City

Brendan Rodgers, the manager of Leicester City, commented that It's a genuinely magnificent performance. With all they've been through, this is an incredible result for us against one of the top teams in the world. After a Major Covid outbreak prompted the delay of their game on Sunday, Liverpool got more rest than Leicester during the holidays. Despite being back in action only two days after their thumping at the city, Leicester could not deploy a recognized center-back for a repeat of the League Cup quarter-final victory by Liverpool on penalties last week. In the initial phases, Liverpool seemed prepared to use Leicester's weak line-up, strengthened by Virgil van Dijk's recovery from Covid. Salah's slalom through the Leicester defense was interrupted by Wilfred Ndidi's trip in the 16th minute, and he had a great potential to start the scoring. On the other hand, Salah missed three opportunities to win a penalty for Liverpool, as Schmeichel blocked his unimpressive effort before the Egyptian slammed the ball against the bar.