Let’s not call it a revolution, let’s just call it a much-needed win.
The free-scoring league leaders were held scoreless and Christian Benteke scored is fifth league goal of the season – that constitutes a happy Christmas on Merseyside.
Valuable and welcome as this win was, it was by no means flawless and Jurgen Klopp will be more aware than ever of the limitations within his squad – namely up front and at the back.
What they do have is a clever manager who is learning the rhythms of the Premier League and, with no European distractions midweek, has the time to work with his players.
Klopp knew Liverpool had to learn from their chastening 3-0 defeat to Watford last weekend and he knew those lessons would be severely tested against a Leicester team who operate a similar counter-attacking style.
A first league win since the end of November is the reward for a trying but rewarding Christmas week at Melwood.
Klopp has struggled for consistency since replacing Brendan Rodgers in October. For every 6-1 away thrashing of Southampton there has been a 2-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace, but at Anfield on St Stephen’s Day we saw the German’s stamp on the Reds.
No team have held Leicester City scoreless this season but heading into the final quarter Claudio Ranieri had already withdrawn his superstar goal-scoring duo of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, along with Shinji Okazaki, as the Foxes’ attacking trio were frustrated by an organised and aggressive Liverpool defence.
That’s not to say the defence was flawless.
Martin Skrtel will miss six weeks through injury but Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren looked like a workable – if accident prone – pairing in the centre, aided by the hard-working combination of Emre Can and Jordan Henderson in front of them.
Behind them Simon Mignolet still looks a maddening mix of shot-stopping brilliance and cross-dropping nightmare, but one 74th minute save from Nathan Dyer at point-blank range showed exactly what he is capable of.
The match-winning goal came from the £30million striker left on the bench. Christian Benteke was only on the pitch because his fellow Belgian Divock Origi went off injured and while he took his goal well, the butchering of that last gasp five-on-one highlighted his glaring shortcomings.
As a striker he does not contribute enough in open play and when he is accompanied by the baffling Roberto Firmino it places a huge attacking onus on Philippe Coutinho.
Coutinho and Firmino did combine to set up Benteke but this victory owed more to organisation, intensity and graft. It owed much to the spirit displayed by Alberto Moreno in the 90th minute, as he harried Leicester all the way back to Kasper Schmeichel from a corner kick.
Gegenpressing is no longer the buzzword at Anfield, but this was a triumph for organisation and graft as Liverpool learned the lessons of Vicarage Road and boxed very clever on St Stephen’s Day.
