Against the odds, Brendan Rodgers conjures win from his threadbare Leicester team to revive season

This is Premier League management in 2021 for Brendan Rodgers, when your squad is outside the established ‘Big Six’ and ravaged by Covid-19, injuries and illness.

Fifty-one hours after conceding six goals at Manchester City, this could easily have been another chastening experience for a threadbare Leicester team and their manager amid so much disruption.

Yet this result and performance will have warmed the soul for Leicester on a chilly Midlands evening, and could be the turning point in what has been a chaotic campaign.

The odds here were firmly against the club who lifted the title in the 2015/16 season as 5,000-1 outsiders.

Eight players were absent, including the likes of Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Wesley Fofana and James Justin, which left Rodgers without a recognised senior centre-half in the matchday squad.

The situation has become so severe that defensive midfielder Wilfred Ndidi was drafted into the centre of the back-four, less than a week before he flies out for the Africa Cup of Nations with the Nigeria squad.

With other key players absent, Rodgers was left with no option but to also include three academy graduates - Hamza Choudhury, Luke Thomas and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - against a Liverpool team who had lost just once in their previous 35 matches.

These are the trials and tribulations of a Premier League manager in this Covid era, at a time when 16 top-flight matches have been postponed in three weeks.

This proved, however, that Rodgers can still salvage what has been the toughest season since his appointment in February 2019.

Leicester defied all the negativity to produce a spirited performance, epitomised by the brilliance of Kasper Schmeichel and Ndidi, playing out of position but still appearing comfortable, plus the three homegrown kids.

Dewsbury-Hall may possess the name of a stately home but was immaculate here, underlining his vast potential at the age of 23.

It was unquestionably Schmeichel’s save to deny Mohamed Salah from the penalty spot which emboldened Leicester after a timid start, increasing the noise levels on the terraces and energy within this makeshift starting XI.

Leicester frustrated Liverpool for long periods, also benefiting from the occasional twist of fortune, before substitute Ademola Lookman’s strike raised the roof early in the second-half.

The late bombardment from Liverpool never really materialised and Leicester secured only their third clean sheet in the league this season.

They have finished 2021 with a flourish, but this year will have polarised opinion for many Leicester supporters.

From the glorious high of winning the FA Cup for the first time in their history in May, to agonisingly missing out on Champions League qualification on the final day of last season, this campaign has proved more of a slow-burner with defensive calamities, injuries and inconsistency.

Only Leeds, Newcastle and Norwich have conceded more goals than Leicester this season and Jannik Vestergaard, signed in the summer from Southampton for £15 million, suffered the ignominy of being named on the bench here despite the number of absentees.

With little to no money available to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window, Rodgers is having to push the players available to the limit.

That old cliche about the return of injured players feeling like new signings will be trotted out by Rodgers frequently over the next few weeks.

Fofana, in particular, has been a huge loss after sustaining a serious knee injury in a pre-season game and his anticipated return in February cannot come soon enough.

He was magnificent last season, a £30 million “bargain” from Saint-Etienne, and not even Rodgers could have forecast just how costly the injury would prove to his team.

Soyuncu, Evans and Justin are also expected back next month so at least Rodgers can look ahead to 2022 with a degree of optimism.

A victory like this, against the club who sacked Rodgers in October 2015, should also provide the jump-start for Leicester.