‘Have to be’ - Leicester City head coach makes honest Anfield claim after Liverpool loss

Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca saluted how his side played with ‘bravery’ at Anfield in their Carabao Cup loss to Liverpool.

The Reds dumped the Championship leaders out of the competition at the third-round stage last night. Yet the Foxes made a dream start when Kasey McAteer broke the deadlock in the third minute. After that, however, it was one-way traffic with Liverpool asserting their authority on the tie.

The homes side eventually equalised in the 48th minute through Cody Gakpo before Dominik Szoboszlai’s rocket from outside the are gave Liverpool the lead. Diogo Jota then confirmed the triumph in the final minute of normal time.

Leicester’s chief aim this season is to return to the Premier League after suffering relegation last term. Maresca has changed the style of play at the King Power Stadium, which as so far yielded 21 points from eight second-tier fixtures. And although the Foxes were outclassed against Jurgen Klopp’s men, the Italian took plenty of heart from the visitors’ performance.

The Leicester head coach said: “I'm very proud of the players because to come to this stadium against this opponent and to continue playing in the way they want to play, they showed they were very brave. Since we started the game until the end, we continued in our way and they make me very proud tonight.

“To be honest, even after 45 minutes when we were 1-0 up I was not focused on the result. It's always important for sure but I told them before the game that for us tonight, our target was to continue to play the way we want to play on and off the ball.

“We tried to press higher, sometimes we took some risks but for us the most important was it doesn't matter the opponent or stadium we play the way we want to play. Tonight, the most important thing was to be focused on how we behave. You have to be very brave to come to Anfield against Liverpool and to try in the way we want to play so I'm very happy and focused about that.”