Despite going undefeated during the absence of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, manager Jurgen Klopp excited fans by saying that he expects his AFCON finalists to return for this matchup with Leicester City.
Liverpool
After a comfortable 3-1 FA Cup win over Cardiff last time out, Liverpool’s uphill battle to catch league-leaders Manchester City continues, having previously recorded back-to-back Premier League wins. Despite going undefeated during the absence of Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, manager Jurgen Klopp excited fans by saying that he expects his AFCON finalists to return for this matchup with Leicester City. As intimidating as ever at Anfield, Liverpool currently defend the only remaining undefeated Premier League home record this season, amid six clean sheets and six wins by a 2 goal margin. The ‘Reds’ haven’t always had it their own way in Thursday fixtures though, winning less than half of the 15 Premier League matches they’ve played on this day.
Leicester City
FA Cup holders Leicester were embarrassingly dumped out of the competition over the weekend, losing 4-1 to Championship side Nottingham Forest which heaped more pressure on manager Brendan Rodgers. Inconsistency has plagued the mid-table ‘Foxes’ this season, with each of their last 11 league fixtures producing a different result than the match prior although that run does include a 1-0 win against Liverpool in the reverse fixture. As a result, Leicester have now won the two most recent Premier League H2H encounters, after failing to win any of the seven prior, and should former Liverpool boss Rodgers cause another upset here, he will become only the second manager to record a league double over Liverpool after leaving the club.
That will be easier said than done after a run of four winless Premier League away games, although they could make it hard for Liverpool as they’ve scored in every Premier League road trip this season.
Liverpool’s Diogo Jota has scored six career goals vs Leicester when playing at home across all competitions, while five of James Maddison’s six Premier League goals for Leicester have arrived after half-time. Liverpool have been losing at half-time only twice in their 35 games this season.