Compared with recent barren years, Liverpool are having a successful season. One trophy has been won, another is a possibility and a Champions League place is within reach.
Yet even now the best team so far produced by Gerard Houllier is apt to cower before the memories of things past. It is as if the ghosts of the great Liverpool sides of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish choose the most inauspicious moments to haunt the players.
The power cut in extra time of the League Cup final, when Birmingham City briefly ran the game, was followed by a 2-0 defeat at Filbert Street which again found Houllier's side flickering like a faulty light bulb, only this time the filament failed altogether.
"It was not good enough," Houllier said of Liverpool's performance on Saturday, avoiding the temptation to mention that 12 players had been away on international duty during the week. "We just have to blame ourselves, look at ourselves and realise that this is not acceptable."
Alternatively they could look at Leicester and remind themselves that strengths of character and desire are as important to a team's success as sound technique and tactical awareness.
Leicester, first under Martin O'Neill and now Peter Taylor, operate in the knowledge that hard work and concentration will often bridge any gaps in ability which lie between themselves and more vaunted opponents.
So faithfully did Leicester follow this creed on Saturday that for the last hour they not only exceeded Liverpool in terms of work rate they were the better side all round.
Nobody personified this aspect of the game more than Robbie Savage, who since Neil Lennon departed for Celtic in December has become the fulcrum of a team that uses a solid defensive platform for counterattacks which make full use of the pace Leicester possess on their wings.
Opponents must find Savage as irksome as a Welsh corgi forever snapping at the postman's heels. "We have to calm him down because sometimes he runs all over the place," said Taylor, as if to support the comparison. But on Saturday Savage was at the right place at the right moment to help turn the match Leicester's way.
The first half having been largely devoted to the spectacle of each set of centre-backs heading hopeful crosses away, the second was quickly redeemed by an aberration on the part of Robbie Fowler. Gaining possession deep in his own half, Fowler brought the ball under control and glanced up before laying it carefully across the lefthand corner of his own penalty area straight to Savage, lurking just outside the arc.
Savage quickly found Muzzy Izzet and he fed a short ball to Dean Sturridge whose low square pass was turned in by Ade Akinbiyi.
Thereafter Liverpool attacked steadily but untidily, with Christian Ziege's wickedly-flighted free kicks their biggest threat.
In stoppage time a long clearance from Andrew Impey, who had replaced the injured Frank Sinclair before half-time, dropped to another substitute, Arnar Gunnlaugsson, and with the Liverpool defence caught square the Icelander sent in Izzet to complete a notable victory that keeps Leicester's hopes of European football next season very much alive.
LEICESTER: Royce, Sinclair (Impey 34), Davidson, Elliott, Rowett, Taggart, Savage, Lewis, Izzet, Akinbiyi (Gunnlaugsson 73), Sturridge (Benjamin 82). Subs Not Used: Andrews, Guppy. Booked: Izzet. Goals: Akinbiyi 51, Izzet 90.
LIVERPOOL: Westerveld, Babbel, Hyypia, Henchoz (Owen 61), Carragher, Ziege, Gerrard, McAllister (Hamann 75), Barmby (Murphy 81), Fowler, Heskey. Subs Not Used: Arphexad, Biscan. Booked: Heskey.
Referee: D Gallagher (Banbury).
