The appearance of Jakub Stolarczyk in the Leicester squad against Liverpool was perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the entire Boxing Day. The Pole was the second goalkeeper of the Foxes in the Championship, and after the promotion he even dropped in the hierarchy to goalkeeper no. 3. Especially since he was recovering from an injury for a long time. So why the sudden opportunity for him? Two things contributed to this. First, Leicester's first goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen, suffered a groin injury. After the second time, when he was replaced by Danny Ward in the Wolverhampton match (0:3), he played in such a way that the Leicester fans could only break down.
Van Nistelrooy took a risk and he shouldn't regret it
Coach Ruud van Nistelrooy therefore decided to make a very bold move and gave the debutant a chance at the stadium of the currently most difficult rival in the Premier League. Liverpool defeated the newcomer 3-1 without any major surprise, although Leicester was the first to score in the sixth minute. This only enraged the league leader, who crushed the Foxes for 95% of the match and reaped the rewards.
Despite everything, Stolarczyk performed favorably. The Pole couldn't do much with any of the goals, and he stopped his opponents several times, such as when shooting shots by Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez. He was also very lucky because Liverpool hit the edge of the goal twice. The performance of the Polish goalkeeper was appreciated by the English media, who gave him top marks in the “Foxes” team.
Stolarczyk praised despite defeat. “He provided key interventions.”
His grades most often ranged between 6 and 6.5. He was given a six by the Daily Mail and si.com. A score of 6.3 was published next to our goalkeeper's name on 90min.com and Yahoo Sports. The only ones who valued them higher were the achievements of Andre Ayew, who scored the goal, and Stepha Mavididi, who was the assistant to the goal. – He made many key saves, but Liverpool's offensive power turned out to be too strong for the entire team – writes Yahoo.
Sofascore.com and the local leicestermercury.co.uk were even kinder. According to the former, the Pole deserved the second highest score (7.3) after Andre Ayew (7.4). Stolarczyk's four interventions saved Leicester by 0.78 goals, which is a very good result. Local journalists from Leicester, in turn, gave the Pole a rating of 7.
– Even in defeat, he gave the performance that the team, coach van Nistelrooy and the fans needed. He did great, especially with shots from Salah and Jones early in the match, and then made a few more valuable saves. He also looked very confident during corner kicks, when he punched crosses effectively – we read. It is not yet known whether Mads Hermansen will recover by the time of Leicester's next match; van Nistelrooy himself was not able to say exactly how long it would take before the match against Liverpool. However, if the Dane is not ready, Stolarczyk gave a solid excuse to play on Sunday, December 29. Leicester will then face crisis-ridden Manchester City at home.