Islam Slimani strike seals Leicester win as Liverpool crash out of Carabao Cup

There is no respite for Jürgen Klopp at the moment. After admitting the previous week had been his most frustrating since he took over at Anfield, the Liverpool manager endured more of the same as Leicester City exposed the brittle confidence in a team who are no closer to working out how to defend.

Klopp sounded exasperated as he digested the fallout from a game that highlighted familiar failings, with both Leicester goals originating from set pieces. Shinji Okazaki, who came off the bench to such telling effect, scored the first following a half-cleared corner and Islam Slimani added a brilliant second after Liverpool were slow to react to a throw-in. “That we concede like this makes me really, really sick,” Klopp said.

By that stage in the press conference Klopp had ruefully reflected on the numerous opportunities Liverpool squandered in a first half they totally dominated, enjoying 76% of possession and registering 13 shots to Leicester’s three. Yet Klopp knows those statistics count for nothing if Liverpool continue to crack at the first sign of pressure. It is now four matches without a win for them and, with no evidence of any improvement in defence despite all the work on the training ground, it is hard to escape the feeling some of the players are not good enough.

Klopp’s decision to withdraw Philippe Coutinho at the interval certainly did not help Liverpool’s cause. The manager explained he had made up his mind before the game that the Brazilian, who was the best player by a distance in the first half, would play for only 45 minutes as he continues to build up his fitness. Whatever anyone thinks of Klopp’s thinking on that front, the departure of one player is surely no reason for a team to totally lose their way.

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Before the interval it had seemed a matter of when, not if, Liverpool would score. Klopp had made eight changes to the side held to a 1-1 draw at home against Burnley – Craig Shakespeare made seven to his Leicester team – and there was no hint of what was to come as Liverpool played with confidence and fluency. They created chance after chance, the majority of them arriving down their left flank, where Andrew Robertson was having a field day up against Daniel Amartey, Leicester’s makeshift right-back.

It was Robertson’s cross that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, making his first Liverpool start, would have converted in the sixth minute but for Ben Chilwell’s timely intervention. Coutinho, twisting and turning on the edge of the penalty area, saw his shot parried by Ben Hamer six minutes later. Then Robertson delivered another centre from the left that Dominic Solanke, slightly off balance as he stretched to reach the ball, volleyed over when he probably should have scored.

Unable to keep the ball and looking disjointed with Leonardo Ulloa playing up front alongside Slimani, Leicester were a team under siege. Coutinho fed Solanke, whose blocked shot ran into the path of Robertson just outside the six-yard box. With the angle against him, the left-back tried to steer the ball into the far corner with the outside of a boot but his effort deflected behind. Then Solanke, from another Coutinho pass, lifted the ball on to the roof of the net on the stroke of half-time. “We lived a charmed life in the first half,” said Shakespeare, who was delighted Coutinho failed to emerge after the interval.

Okazaki turned out to be the game-changer. A replacement for Ulloa in the 52nd minute, the Japan international brought Leicester to life with his dynamic running as he scored the first goal and created the second. Liverpool never properly cleared their lines for the opener, which came following Marc Albrighton’s corner. Chilwell’s deep cross picked out Wes Morgan, who won the first header. Vicente Iborra, making his Leicester debut, then intelligently nodded the ball down for Okazaki, whose shot took a deflection off Robertson and beat Danny Ward.

Liverpool never looked like recovering from that blow and any faint hopes they had of forcing extra time were extinguished when Slimani added a second. Running on to Okazaki’s pass following a throw-in on the Leicester right, the Algerian swept a glorious left-foot shot into the top right corner.

“It’s all about the result,” Shakespeare said. “And we really showed a lot of resilience and character to come back the way we did in the second half.”