A win is a win, but Liverpool FC were lucky against Spurs.
We are often told that playing poorly and winning is the sign of a good team; it’s certainly a habit we haven’t had over the last few seasons, so when we do exactly that against a very good team in Spurs then it is to be commended and not excessively criticised.
However that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.
We played well in parts, particularly in the first-half, but Spurs for me were the better team. It was the first time we have beaten a well regarded opponent all season, but yet again the tactics that Brendan Rodgers began the game with didn’t help.
Having seen Sturridge and Suarez combine so well in recent games, and the good form of new signing Coutinho and rejuvenated Downing, Rodgers went for a bold attacking line-up.
However Lucas and Gerrard were too often overrun and on the backfoot in midfield, and with an out of sorts Sturridge flitting in and out of the game, by the second-half Tottenham were deservedly 2-1 up and in complete control. It didn’t look like we would get back into it.
Rodgers, to his credit, did eventually notice this imbalance and changed the formation, bringing on an additional midfielder for Coutinho and moving Suarez to the left. He has been lauded for this in the press, but for me, why is it that so often he gets the starting selection wrong?
Allen did okay, but it was the change in formation, rather than the player, that helped the team. I feel somewhat sorry for Henderson, who having played very well in his recent performances, including some stunning goals, is still overlooked in favour of Allen who isn’t justifying his place.
We won the Spurs game primarily due to two very rare Spurs errors that we capitalised upon, and due to the brilliance of Luis Suarez. As AVB rightly pointed out, if Sigurdsson’s ricocheted shot hadn’t hit the post we’d have been dead and buried at 3-1.
Downing played well yet again, showing excellent anticipation for the interception, but even here his finish owed a lot to fortune. Rather than adding a touch of height to the shot and placing, or even blasting it, into space, he hit a daisy cutter straight at Vertonghen – the easiest type of shot to block! Lucky for us it went straight through the despairing defenders legs. We had 4 shots on target and scored 3 goals. For those who feel possession statistics should be paramount when analysing a game, we had just 46.5% possession.
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
I say all this not because I want to criticise the team after an important win, but because it’s important to have a sense of objective reality when we hastily begin to dream again of Champions League qualification. Our run in is clearly easier than our competitors’, but it’s still a huge gap to reclaim – Chelsea are 7 points ahead with a game in hand and we have 9 games left. We’ll have to win all 9 and even then we may not get fourth. Fingers crossed though.
On a connected issue, something that has concerned me this season, and on which I’ve written about before, has been our defensive frailties.
For me this has been the biggest theme running throughout this campaign and it continues to haunt us. Gareth Bale certainly put in two excellent deliveries for both goals, but defending such deliveries should not cause the frantic panic that it so often causes in our defence. Spurs fortunately did not target this weakness as much as they could have, and perhaps if Lennon had been fit we’d have had to have dealt with a lot more crosses.
This weakness is why we’re often biting our nails against Stoke, or indeed in the West Ham away game where I’m still not sure how we won (a rare Joe Cole goal and Jonjo Shelvey’s ghost-goal completing a fortuitous comeback).
Watching the recent U21 game against West Ham last Monday, where Sterling, Suso, Shelvey and Wisdom are now playing again, it was disappointing that this weakness seems to be prevalent even at lower age groups. We dominated this game, with the young foursome showing that they are clearly above this level. Suso in particular was outstanding scoring an excellent brace, working hard and passing with the type of incisiveness I rarely see in Joe Allen, but we conceded 3 goals all from corners and the game ended 3-3.
No doubt with Carra’s retirement we will be in the market for a new centre-back. At Liverpool we like our centre-backs to be able to pass the ball, but my hope is we sign a centre-back who can actually win physical and aerial battles against the likes of Grant Holt or Kenwyne Jones. It’ll be tough replacing Carra, especially as we still haven’t been able to replace Sami Hyypia.
You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
[ad_pod id=’DFP-MPU’ align=’right’]
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at live4liverpool@snack-media.com
Follow us on Twitter here: @live4Liverpool and ‘Like’ us on Facebook
It seems to me everyone takes great pleasure in criticising LFC. They’re damned if the win and damned if they don’t.
This article is more about the performance rather than the result. Its not damning anyone, just an objective assessment about a performance.
I agree with jose,i thought the team formation was
poor and the performance was terrible,i dont really think rodgers knows what he’s doing,spurs were the better team,we just got lucky!so rodgers
banging the drum sounds like a man desparate to feed his own ego,i still cant get over the narcacisstic picture during the being liverpool on tv.
totally agree . i cringe every time i think of being liverpool
At least we have a Reds fan who isn’t blinded by fandom.
It was not a convincing win thats for sure. Its hard to be too critical of Rodgers, but one thing I would like to point out is that Dembele and Allen cost the same (£15M). Wow!
To get top 4 we need around 70 points, so 25 points from a possible 27! Not going to happen, and even then its possible we will only get 5th.
My main concern is the summer, IF Luis stays, we need to attract top players, but with no Champions League and with Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and City also looking to strengthen, we are going to be down the pecking order unfortunately.
Top 4 will be very difficult. I think the talk from the club and players of just focussing on winning the next game is the right attitude. I’m hopful of good results over last games given the quality of opposition and the added attacking verve Sturridge & Coutinho can add, but I agree that Champs league is unfortunately rather unlikely.
when u going to write anything that doesnt pull the team,u said they deserved to be 2 1 up so i take it u didnt think bale cheated to get the free kick that the second goal came from, refs are not meant to let a player on the field when they are off injured when the ball is on that side of the pitch bale came on and they had the extra man that lead to the first goal you dont point any of these things out just the points that we were lucky
Spot the biased fool !
I submitted the article on Tues and already by then there had been match summary’s and other discussions on particular incidents. Some incidents didn’t go our way (e.g. Bale ‘non’ fould for free-kick that lead to the goal) and others did (e.g. Downing’s shot going through Vertonghen’s leg or Spurs hitting the post at 2-1), however from overall play, control of possession, number of shots etc. Spurs were the better team and were deserving of their 2-1 lead. We’ve played a lot better without getting results before. Just because we got a great result doesn’t mean we should ‘assume’ we played well to deserve it.
We weren’t the best team that’s for sure. Spurs errors let us back into the match… So yeah ,- not the best performance
To be honest, we played better at the Lane and lost.. How many times have we seen Liverpool not take the points this season when we have been the better team?
I accept we were lucky to win, but its about time we had little bit of luck
Agreed. The Man City results were particularly galling as we played particularly well in them against a very strong team. However to be a Champs League contender next season we do need to play better more often than we presently do.
I suspect the mong who wrote this nonsense article plays football manager. A lot.
Not even Jaimie Kanwar is this stupid.
The starting tactic was a bit risky, but I think the inclusion of Coutinho ahead of Allen or Henderson signalled how Rodgers wanted us to start the game. He knows we’re better going forward than defending, and I think he took a small tactical gamble, hoping we would get the positive start we seem to need.
It worked for 20-25 minutes when we were clearly the better team, but when Spurs settled and sorted out their midfield we found ourselves outnumbered.
Pure speculation of course, but I think Rodgers was just waiting for the half time whistle, and I’m pretty sure he was planning on making adjustments at half time, switching to three in midfield to regain the control we had at the start. Then Spurs got the goal pretty much out of nothing and we had to start over again.
I don’t think we deserved the win either, but we’ve been on the receiving end of this plenty of times now, so I’ll gladly take a couple of undeserved points.
That’s a fair assesment. However I do worry that Rodgers’ team selection too often tend to be ‘just’ wrong (e.g. whether to play a 2-1 or 1-2 in midfield) and he ends up having to change them midway through the game. He does recognise these errors and corrects them with substitutions but often it’s too late (e.g. Villa or against Man U when he went with the 3 man midfield with Allen furthest forward rather than starting Sturridge who changed the game when he came on later on)
You say that by the second half Spurs deserved to be 2-1 up and should have gone 3-1 up. You forget that we should have been 2-0 up before they scored.
To those saying we only scored from Spurs’ mistakes, well what exactly did Spurs score from?
Fact is this is a game we would have lost or drawn earlier in the season.
What’s your nickname,”Red Specs”?
I don’t know why Liverpool fans have to be so blinkered and biased all the time instead of giving an honest assessment.
Good article gabriel, at least you try to be honest rather than pretending we are wonderful in every way like some do
Thanks Liverbaby.
We scored in that opening phase no? If not for the goal at the beginning we wouldn’t have been ahead at the end. Seems to me like a plan that worked against a very strong spuds side.
Lol…so Rodgers planned for spurs to gift us two goals ?
…some people are clueless
you say that spurs makes a rare mistake & that out 2 goals was unlucky. its a little bit under statement. you forgot to single out the art of defense in this game. kyle walker were forced to make the pass like he did due to Liv high press defense. space were shut when Spurs had the ball in Liv’s half. Liv actually did great. 1st goal Bale got himself free to cross because the ref questionably let Bale comes in when the ball is near him, thus making him having spave to deliver the cross. 2nd was a blunder inside the penalty box. it wasn’t an open play lapses. this game i believe was a tight one of which whoever wins the game, wins the game. Liv’s score is legit, & deserve winner.
As I said the introduction of Allen to add to midfield helped our shape and team. However, Walker wasn’t under any great pressure. There was an LFC player closing but he had time and options – there was no conceivable reason to play a lofted 40 yard diagonal back pass completely wayward. Defoe’s mistake was comical, worthy of Djimi Traore, – but very, very welcome nonetheless.
Performance wasn’t great . Probably didn’t deserve to win .but hell .who cares ?? We won
Fair analysis . It’s a flipping disgrace hendo is overlooked in favour of brendans wee pet
Did someone say Rodgers planned for Spurs to gift us two goals?
Spurs fan!
I thought we played great at Anfield! We really dominated posession which pleased a lot of Spurs fans especialy with Dembele out on the right and Livermore playing only his second game, lennon missing to!
Liverpool were out muscled by us but there a good team on a great run so no shame losing at Anfield.
Liverpool need to just continue playing with the squad they have, buying world class superstars isnt going to happen next year, concentrate on what you have and just add one or two quality players, with the debt the club is carrying thats all you can do.
Liverpool had a great game at the lane and lost, we sat in and hit yous on the break, but probably should have lost so swings and roundabouts!
Yeah. We were the better team at White Hard Lane and lost, so honours even.
i need to make a correction to this article.. I dont think rodgers got the starting line up wrong, he knew exactly what he was doing. The reason for starting with only two midfeilders was that liverpool wouldnt have possesion in midfeild but would have a very potent attack. After a few goals have been scored and the game looks won, rodgers would then remove an attacker (probably cotinho) and add a midfeilder (probably allen or hendo) to reposses the game and see the game to completion. And this plan almost worked when liverpool scored the early goal. Unfortunately in the 2nd half, spurs really took advantage of the lack of strength in the middle and rodgers had to add allen to regain back control of the ball possesion.
I disagree, but football’s a matter of opinions. Rodgers played a side that had done well against weaker teams, but Spurs’ quality didn’t allow it to function well (that and Sturridge being rusty). We’d have done better starting Henderson in midfield with Suarez central alongside Coutinho & Downing, though I understand his eagerness to play Sturridge in a must win key game.
Does it matter whether we played wel or not,how many times hav we played teams into submission an not get wat we deserved,3 points gained doesn’t matter how and I genuinely believe we wil get 4th spot
Yes it does. Going forward, we just need to be honest with ourself and correct our weaknesses so that we can have a real formidable team. Ignoring our weaknesses simply highlights the so called “false dawn” phenomenon that has characterized our team for so long!
Good article, all true. We need rocks for defenders, may be a couple! Other teams could have exploited this weakness a lot and that’s why we lose matches against teams that have big and powerful players. A “beast” of a midfielder would also be welcome.
Thanks. We do lack physicality in midfield as well. Unfortunately not sure Rodgers shares our opinion on that.
The game just was good from both side to spurs was the better team is not true. Both sides made errors. Should Liverpool have had another penalty? The best bit of football played in the game was the first goal no errors just craft.