Leicester City vs Liverpool was the first Premier League game on Matchday 4 and Saturday’s early kick off didn’t disappoint, with the Reds edging the Foxes 2-1 at the King Power Stadium.
Jurgen Klopp’s men came into the tie as heavy favourites and were all over the home side in the opening exchanges and looked to be on their way to a fourth win on the trot with a 2-0 lead at the interval.
Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane’s strikes had given the visitors a nice cushion, but post the interval the Foxes made life difficult for their fancied opponents.
Reds custodian Alisson made a blunder to allow Rachid Ghezzal to reduce the deficit and while Claude Puel’s men did their best, they were unable to find an equaliser and Liverpool held on to enter the international break on a high.
Here are The Statesman’s player ratings from an engaging fixture in Leicester:
Leicester City
Kasper Schmeichel
Solid save to deny Firmino and was kept busy throughout.
Not at fault for either of Liverpool’s goals.
Rating: 6/10
Ben Chilwell
Struggled, like the rest of his teammates, in the first-half but post the interval put in a decent shift.
Couldn’t get forward as much as he would have liked.
Rating: 6/10
Wes Morgan
The veteran toiled throughout and had he been a bit more alert, he could have tackled Robertson in the buildup to the opener.
Rating: 4/10
Harry Maguire
The big centre-back had an interesting battle going on with Firmino and while he did manage to keep the Brazilian quiet except for when the striker opened the scoring, this wasn’t one of his better outings.
Rating: 5/10
Ricardo Pereira
Outmuscled for the opener by Robertson of all people and the Portuguese didn’t really recover from there.
Rating: 4/10
Onyinye Ndidi
Found the going tough, especially when Liverpool’s forwards were surging ahead.
Booked at the death.
Rating: 5/10
Nampalys Mendy
Like his central midfield partner, couldn’t quite nip Liverpool’s attacks in the bud.
Cautioned for a cynical challenge on Mane in the second half.
Rating: 5/10
Rachid Ghezzal
Plenty of positives for the Algerian on his first Premier League start.
Not dissimilar to the man he’s been hired to replace, created some good chances for his teammates and managed to score as well.
Booked for an unnecessary challenge on Milner.
Rating: 7/10
James Maddison
On another day, could have had two goals.
Promising outing from the former Norwich City man.
Rating: 6/10
Marc Albrighton
Shunted out wide and unsurprisingly, didn’t look comfortable.
Rating: 5/10
Demarai Gray
Fed on scraps mostly, did manage to force a good save from Alisson in the first-half but not enough and he’s set to warm the bench after the international break.
Rating: 5/10
Substitues
Kelechi Iheanacho
Came on when the Foxes were the dominant side and did well to set up Ghezzal for the goal.
Rating: 7/10
Shinji Okazaki
Didn’t get the ball in the areas he can make an impact after replacing Gray with 15 minutes left in the tie.
Rating: 6/10
Daniel Amartey
Replaced Maddison with less than 10 minutes to play.
Rating: N/A
Liverpool
Alisson
After three clean sheets in a row, down to earth for Liverpool’s Brazilian custodian for his gaffe led to Leicester scoring.
Saves were still top class though.
Rating: 6/10
Andy Robertson
The Scot’s fine start to the season continues with another excellent outing.
Bulldozed his way past Pereira to assist Mane.
Rating: 7/10
Virgil van Dijk
Poor game from the towering Dutchman.
His poor pass contributed to Alisson’s blunder and on the whole, he looked anything like the £75 million signing he is.
To add insult to injury, got booked as well.
Rating: 4/10
Joe Gomez
Great display from the English defender and saved a sure shot goal with his block on Maddison.
Rating: 7/10
Trent Alexander-Arnold
For a change, didn’t get booked.
Not exceptionally flashy, but got the job done.
Rating: 6/10
James Milner
Excellent delivery to set up Firmino and on the whole, did a decent job.
Rating: 7/10
Jordan Henderson
First start of the season and it’s obvious the Reds skipper isn’t quite 100 per cent yet.
Rating: 6/10
Sadio Mane
Most potent of the Liverpool forwards, caused all sorts of problems for the home defence with his searing pace.
Rating: 8/10
Roberto Firmino
Will be relieved to get off the mark and it was nothing less than he deserved for he put in a real shift.
Rating: 7/10
Mohamed Salah
Was nowhere near his prolific self and looks a tad bit jaded to be honest.
Rating: 5/10
Substitues
Xherdan Shaqiri
Replaced the ineffective Salah with 20 minutes to go but couldn’t quite get going.
Rating: 6/10
Naby Keita
Came on for Henderson as Klopp sought to wrest control of the midfield back.
Rating: 6/10
Joel Matip
Rating: N/A