Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Liverpool be without defender Martin Skrtel for the first time this season in the league as he faces a six-week absence because of a torn hamstring.
Dejan Lovren and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet could miss out again with respective knee and hamstring injuries.
Leicester defender Robert Huth is back after suspension and is likely to replace Marcin Wasilewski.
Danny Drinkwater will not be rushed back from a hamstring injury and Jeff Schlupp is out with a similar problem.
Editor’s Note: Liverpool looked miserable at Vicarage Road last Sunday and it wasn’t the best of December’s as they haven’t registered a win in 3 league matches and sit 9th in the table. After last week’s performance I’m surprised Jurgen Klopp didn’t cancel Xmas
Their performance was pretty much summed up by Adam Bogdan’s howler after only 3 minutes which gifted Watford the lead and then Livepool never even got a look in. A shaky performance from Bogdan made the Defence in front of him nervous and it was a performance lacking in confidence. The bad news is that Martin Skrtel is out for 6 weeks and Bogdan looks set to start again.
The worse news is that they are up against league leaders Leicester. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez must be licking their lips at the thought of going up against Adam Bogdan this afternoon as they look to continue this incredible adventure.
Everyone said that December would be their downfall as they had an incredibly difficult fixture list, well they’ve won the first 3 challenges and there’s no reason why they can’t jump over the fourth hurdle this afternoon. More importantly from Claudio Ranieri’s point of view, it they were to win today they would surpass the magic 40 point marker and league safety would be assured.
I suppose the question is when Leicester do surpass 40 points, where do they go from there?. Will the breaks come on and the momentum drop, I guess that is going to take Ranieri’s management skills to make sure that doesn’t happen but for now the focus will be on the trip to Anfield.
Jamie Vardy may not be scoring at the same rate but he is laying goals on a plate for Riyad Mahrez who has scored 6 in the last 3 matches and bagged a brace on Merseyside last weekend and will no doubt be looking for more of the same this afternoon.
I initially put a Draw as my prediction for this but now looking at the fact that Adam Bogdan is playing again for Liverpool, I really wouldn’t be too surprised if Leicester left Anfield with all 3 points.
