Brendan Rodgers insisted Wout Faes had the strength of character to recover from a calamitous performance at Liverpool where two own goals inside seven minutes condemned Leicester to defeat at Anfield.
The Belgium international became the fourth player to score two own goals in a single Premier League game – following Jamie Carragher, Michael Proctor and Jonathan Walters – as he overturned Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s opener for Leicester and gifted Liverpool a fourth successive league win.
Rodgers described the first own goal as “freakish” and the second as “unfortunate” while backing the £15m defender to overcome a torturous evening.
“It is obviously disappointing for him but he is a really strong character,” the Leicester manager said. “He has been really good for us since he arrived from Reims. He was away at the World Cup and didn’t play a minute so it will take him a few games to get his rhythm back. He has shown the level he can get to. Tonight he was just unfortunate but I thought he responded brilliantly in the second half.”
Faes sliced the first own goal over Danny Ward after the Leicester goalkeeper had clearly called to claim Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross to the near post. Rodgers admitted: “It’s a decision you have to make as a defender. There was no real trouble coming in, the ball is coming into Danny’s hands, but as a defender you have to make those decisions. Since he has been with us he has been brilliant. It was just freakish and he was unfortunate with the second one.”
Jürgen Klopp conceded that Liverpool were far from their best and played into Leicester’s hands in the first half.
The Liverpool manager said: “The result is very pleasing but it was not our best performance. We conceded from a goal kick – I can’t remember many like that before – and so we were 1-0 down against a counterattacking team with a clear idea. That is absolutely the opposite of what we wanted. On top of that we played in Leicester’s hands by losing balls in the wrong moments and being too open.
“We knew we had to improve in the second half and we did but they still had their moments. Credit to Leicester, it is no coincidence they have a decent away record, but we had massive chances to finish the game off and didn’t use them. We had to fight our way through.”
