Becker Does A 'Karius' As liverpool Beat Leicester 2-1

By Joshua Walters

Loris Karius’ cost Liverpool the 2017 Champions League title with two blunders that resulted in goals in the finals, but the club’s solution to the goalkeeping problem, Alisson Becker, showed the ‘Karius’ in him at Leicester City on Saturday.

Sadio Mane struck his fourth goal in four games in the 10th minute and Roberto Firmono made it two with a header in the 45th minute, but Rachid Ghezzal scored a consolation goal in the 63rd minute after Becker had gifted the ball to Kelechi Iheanacho whilst showboating.

Becker received a back pass from an underpressure Van Dijk, but the second most expensive goalkeeper tried to dribble Iheanacho despite having enough space to clear to safety.

The Nigerian intercepted the ball and played it to Rachid Ghezzal, who blasted in with cheeky ease.

The win gives Jurgen Klopp’s side their fourth straight victory, but the shine was taken away by Becker, who committed the same error that he was brought to the club to solve.

The visitors dominated the early 20 minutes, but could not score in the 4th minute when Kasper Schmeichel made a decent save to Firmino’s shot from the edge of the box.

Mohamed Salah fed on the rebound, but smashed the ball just wide. Andrew Robertson dribbled pass Ricard Pereira to find Sadio Mane, who fired a low shot into the middle of the goal from inside the six-yard.

James Milner played through Salah in the 18th minute as Liverpool continued to pin the hosts at their own half, but the Egyptian’s through pass to Firmino was cleared by Wes Morgan.

Leicester came into the game in the 21st minute and had their first goal attempt two minutes later with Demarai Gray’s going round Van Dijk to hit a grounder which Becker palmed to a corner.

Van Dijk made a nice interception on the half-hour mark to deny Gray of winning the ball in the penalty box, Marc Albrighton shot wide in the 33rd minute after running through the visitor’s midfield, a minute before James Maddison blew off target at the edge of the box.

Leicester City soared with confidence, but Becker made little efforts of Benjamin Chilwell’s 38th-minute shot, moments before Kasper Schmeichel punched Salah’s shot to a corner whose resultant kick was headed home by the loosely-marked Firmino.

Leicester City started the second half on the high, but Chilwell’s 47th-minute cross was cleared by Van Dijk after Becker had saved James Maddison's close-range effort.

Maddison deflected a shot on Joe Gomez on the hour mark, three minutes before Van Dijk received the first booking of the day after a foul on Maddison.

Iheanacho won the ball from the showboating Becker in the 63rd minute and released Ghezzal who shot home with his second touch of the ball.

Claude Puel’s men kept pushing and Jurgen Klopp made two quick changes by replacing Salah with Xherdan Shaqiri and Jordan Handerson for Naby Keita in the 71st minute.

Puel played his second dice by bringing on Shinji Okazaki for Gray in the 76th minute, and Daniel Amartey for Maddison, but Klopp responded by bringing on Joel Matip for Trent Alexander-Arnold to tighten his defence to the end.