Now that I've calmed down a bit, some tactical observations from the game:
- My guess is Klopp reshuffled the front 3 with Mane on the right, Salah middle and Bobby left for one main reason – to counter the attacking threat of Chilwell down our right. If so, it shows the kind of respect he has for this Leicester team – also confirmed by his post-match interview talking about Leicester playing in Europe next season as a near-certainty. Mane and Salah switched positions a couple of times and ironically both of Sadio’s goal contributions came from his usual left side, but this switch did lead to a few crucial defensive interventions from Mane on Chilwell and also allowed Trent to play his normal attacking game having better protection from his wing-forward.
- The midfield was reshuffled too – Milner came in for Hendo, but not directly in his position, as might be expected. Instead, Gini moved to the right and played as the most attack-minded midfielder of the 3, Fabinho played his usual role of pushing up very aggressively to fight for second balls cleared from Leicester's penalty area, while Milner assumed Gini's role of covering space left by Fabinho, which led to him often being the deepest-lying of the 3, almost the Lallana-Jorginho role. Not sure how viable it is long-term, but it was interesting – Milner created Mane's goal from his deep midfield station (Gini probably wouldn't have made that pass), while Gini got into a few dangerous attacking positions, maybe not enough, but still showing more goal threat than Hendo does in most games.
- Salah had a stinker of a game and it started with his poor passing – probably the weakest part of his game and the first thing that goes when he is not on form. This is the first time in a long time I can remember myself screaming at the TV at one of our players; some of his passes in the 2nd half were just pathetic and you can see how it started to affect his overall confidence as the game progressed. People say he's selfish, but some of it might be just not trusting himself to get the weight of the pass right.
- Lallana coming on for the injured Salah to play in the front 3 gave me unpleasant flash-backs to the Kyiv final. But he was actually the one who won the header against Ndidi with his first touch that dropped for Origi in space, which ultimately led to the penalty. We probably don't win this game if he doesn’t win that header. Meanwhile, Rodgers' half-time substitution of Albrighton has ultimately backfired; the experienced player completely lost his head, made a silly mistake and then compounded it by lunging at Mane. That's where the element of luck comes in and fortunately it arrived at a crucial moment for us. It's this combination of little key moments like that which builds the winning momentum...
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