Liverpool’s best and worst players in Leicester pre-season friendly

For the third pre-season game in a row, Liverpool scored four goals.

Jurgen Klopp’s side had conceded six across the previous two encounters against lower-league German opposition but managed to shut out Leicester City in a dominant 4-0 thumping at the Singapore National Stadium on Sunday.

Leicester delivered a desperately muddled display that Liverpool took full advantage of.

After an even and uneventful opening half-hour, the Reds racked up three goals in eight minutes. Darwin Nunez lived up to his new number with a poacher’s finish before 18-year-old forward Bobby Clark doubled Liverpool’s lead. Diogo Jota completed the first-half blitz with a deft header in the 38th minute.

An entirely new set of outfielders kicked off the second half for Liverpool. But Enzo Maresca had sent out the same Leicester players with the same flaws in the Singaporean heat. Taking advantage of poor set-piece marking, Ben Doak became the second teenager to find the net for the Reds on Sunday, steering in a 64th minute corner.

Klopp used a total of 24 players over the course of 90 minutes against Leicester. Here are the individuals that stood out from the throng for reasons good and bad.

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Mohamed Salah

Salah’s prodigious goal output can often cloud his skill at setting up his teammates. Last season, only Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne could better Salah’s tally of 12 Premier League assists.

On Sunday morning, Salah notched up two more against opponents that graced the Premier League last term. Given far too much room by a skittish Ricardo Pereira, Salah had the freedom of the right flank to pick out another set of green and white quarters.

Shortly after Nunez’s opener, Salah cut onto his left foot but turned down the shooting opportunity to square the ball to Clark, teeing up the teenager for an easier effort that he coolly converted.

Jota is a potent aerial threat despite his modest height but managed to get the better of the 6’6 Jannik Vestergaard thanks largely to the quality of Salah’s delivery. Liverpool’s talisman-turned-provider feathered a cross into the forward’s stride.

Honourable mention

Ben Doak

The spritely Scot doesn’t turn 18 until November but hardly looks out of place among his senior colleagues. Within minutes of his half-time introduction, Doak had twisted poor Pereira in knots, combining concussive speed with bamboozling two-footedness.

Doak has dazzled throughout pre-season and added another piece of evidence to his weighty argument for first-team minutes next term on Sunday. The 17-year-old capped his display by finishing off a simple but effective corner routine.

Ibrahima Konate

Liverpool may have kept their first clean sheet of pre-season but it was not a defensive display without some nervy moments. On the sporadic occasions when Leicester pierced through Liverpool’s advanced rearguard, Ibrahima Konate was frequently the most unsettled member of the backline.

An eagerness to win the ball early did, on occasion, allow Patson Daka to hare towards a goal that was first guarded by Caoimhin Kelleher before Alisson took over in the second half.

However, after a one-sided 4-0 thumping, being the worst player on the winning team is hardly the end of the world.

Dishonourable mention

Kostas Tsimikas

Most midfielders fall down in a comparison to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ease in possession so Kostas Tsimikas always had a tough act to follow when he came on in the second half.

While Joe Gomez fulfilled an orthodox right-back role, Tsimikas was awkward stepping into midfield from the other flank when Liverpool had possession. The Greece international’s unfamiliarity with this hybrid role helps explain his unease.

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