Claude Puel insists Leicester City's defeat to Liverpool is "a big disappointment" because they felt that they could have come away with the full three points at Anfield after a "fantastic start."

The Foxes led after just three minutes after Jamie Vardy tapped in from Riyad Mahrez's cross following Vicente Iborra's good work to pounce on a loose pass from Joël Matip and find Mahrez's run.

But Liverpool took control from there on in and went close on multiple occasions in the first half with Mohamed Salah misfiring when presented with their two best goalscoring opportunities.

Yet the Egpytian, second only to Harry Kane in the Premier League's goalscoring charts, recovered to net a second-half double with Leicester's defence unable to hold out to the dominant hosts.

But despite acknowledging the quality of Liverpool and in particular their match-winner Salah, Puel felt that his side deserved more than defeat - one which leaves them without a win in five matches in all competitions.

Puel insists Salah "made the difference"

"Of course it's a big disappointment at the end because we were leading this game for a lot of time," he told his post-match press conference.

"Of course this is a good team and they had some opportunities in the first half. We defended well, with quality, perhaps we like a little more of the ball, to keep the ball a little more, but we created them some problems.

"It was a fantastic start with this fantastic goal but the player who made the difference this afternoon was Salah. His second goal, it was not a chance. He created it himself, this chance, with his quality.

"It's difficult because we have had the feeling we can come back home with a good result this afternoon. Of course we played a good team, against fantastic players that can make the difference like Salah, any time [in the game].

"We deserved something with our togetherness and our unity and yeah, I am frustrated for my squad and of course with this next game [vs Huddersfield Town] in a short time, now it's important to look forward, to recover for the next game, a crucial game for us.

"But for the moment it [the Liverpool defeat] is a big disappointment."

Puel calls on Leicester to take "more control"

For all of their counter-attacking threat, Puel's side did not manage another shot on target after their goal and the Frenchman was disappointed by the lack of possession that they saw.

He insisted that they must begin to assert more control on the game having failed to win any of their three league games despite taking the lead in all of them.

"We need to make progress about our quality when we got the possession," the Leicester manager continued to tell gathered press.

"For example, all of the team were fantastic, our togetherness as a unit, but now we need to have a little bit more possession and control of the ball because we had had some chances against this team with more quality and more calmness, perhaps we can score another goal.

"We were leading a lot of games away these last games but often the team can come back against us. We need to have more control of the game.

"There was a good spirit and fantastic work from all the players but we need to have more possession to control the game. But we played against a team that were better."

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About the author
Charlie Malam
Digital Sports Writer at the Daily Express. First-class Staffordshire University Sports Journalism graduate. Formerly VAVEL UK's Liverpool FC editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Contributor since June 2014.