Leicester are finally beginning to receive credit for the defensive model Claudio Ranieri has installed.
Like Watford last weekend, their high-pressing system could unnerve Liverpool’s awkward centre-back pairing and leave Jurgen Klopp staring at a fifth consecutive match without a win.
The frantic press and counter-attacking game has begun to dominate English football, overtaking the patient passing philosophy; as Manchester United and Everton struggle for points, Watford, Leicester and Spurs are making good progress. Though Klopp is currently in the process of instigating a similar model at Liverpool, he doesn’t currently possess the players required to pass out accurately from the back.
It came as no surprise to see Watford’s Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo successfully harass Mamadou Sakho and Martin Skrtel during their 3-0 victory last Saturday; they average 85% and 90% pass success rates respectively across the season, but achieved just 82% and 75% against Quique Sanchez Flores’s team.
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Leicester will surely target Sakho. They make the second-most tackles in the Premier League (23.5 per game) and have famously ruffled the feathers of almost every opponent they have faced this campaign. If Liverpool's centre-back pairing are forced into errors, then expect Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy to exploit the centre of the park in precisely the same manner as Ighalo and Deeney did at Vicarage Road.
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