Key events
Wolves beat 10-man Manchester United 2-0. and as a result, they rise to 17th place and Leicester fall into the bottom three.
Andy Hunter heard what Arne Slot had the words he had before this match. And this is what he heard:
Arne Slot has commented on his experience facing Ruud van Nistelrooy in Holland, as well as against Liverpool Brief fall against Tottenhamensures that Leicester will not be underestimated at Anfield on Boxing Day.
The Liverpool boss failed to beat Van Nistelrooy's PSV as he guided Feyenoord to the Eredivisie title in 2022-23, drawing 2-2 at home and losing 4-3 away. PSV were one of only two teams to defeat Feyenoord in a season in which Slot's team won the league by seven points over their closest rivals Eindhoven.
Much more here:
it's been a little cloudy on Merseyside today, but visibility is good enough for play to continue.
The same didn't happen when Tranmere were supposed to play Accrington Stanley a little earlier:
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Do they know it's Christmas, part II? Ruud van Nistelrooy agrees with Slot: “As a manager, you are busy working and sometimes you forget that it is Christmas,” he says wryly.
Meanwhile, asked about the decision to bring Jakub Stolarczyk into the team after Danny Ward was booed by his own fans during the loss to Wolves, he says: “It's not ideal, but the circumstances with Wardy were intense, everyone we're sorry. and it puts you in a position where you have to make decisions.”
Do you know it's Christmas? No, if they are football coaches, they don't. “As a manager, you don't know it's Christmas,” says Arne Slot. “If you told me it was October, I'd probably believe you.”
Also from Slot, this warning: “We are playing very well at the moment, but City two months ago were playing very well and look where they are now.”
The teams!
Today's lineups. Darwin Núñez leads the line for Liverpoolwhile Curtis Jones replaces Szoboszlai. There is no Jamie Vardy for Leicester and Jakub Stolarczyk makes his first start in goal:
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gómez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Jones, Gakpo, Núñez. Substitutes: Kelleher, Endo, Díaz, Szoboszlai, Chiesa, Elliott, Jota, Tsimikas, Quansah.
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Justin, Coady, Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Winks, Soumare, Ayew, El Khannous, Mavididi, Daka. Substitutes: Iversen, Okoli, De Cordova-Reid, Choudhury, Skipp, Edouard, Thomas, Alves, Buonanotte.
Referee: Darren Bond.
Hello World!
It has been a very good Boxing Day. for Liverpool so far: Chelsea lost at home, Manchester City didn't win (and neither did Everton) and Arsenal play tomorrow, all of which adds up to a chance to be seven points ahead of Chelsea (with a game in hand), eight ahead of Nottingham Forest ( likewise) and nine ahead of Arsenal (without one) if they can do to Leicester what they did the last time the Foxes played at Anfield, and the time before that, and the time before that, and indeed what they they did. I've done it eight of the last 10 times. They appeared and beat them (they took out the other two).
Disappointingly (for the visitors), Leicester's only away win this season came at Southampton in October. They have lost seven and won one in 10 games in all competitions since then and their form in their last eight league games is so poor that they haven't even picked up more points than Manchester City (both have five and are, at least in points, joint 18th in a table of the last eight games (speaking of 18, that is the amount of points Liverpool have, making it another table in which they top).
Surprisingly, Liverpool only have a 55% league title conversion rate (before the arrival of the Premier League they were happily walking around with a 71.4% conversion rate, but that dropped to 16.7%, too). known as one of six, since 1992). In reality, this is a slight excess of performance: the Conversion rate of the best Christmas league titles of all time It is 44%, and the historical figure for the Premier League is precisely 50%.
We're almost exactly five months away from knowing how this season will end, with the final day set for May 25. Could we see another big leap in a glorious direction for Arne Slot's high-level players tonight? We'll find out soon!
