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Tottenham 0 Liverpool 3 (Aug 31 2014)


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Report by
Dave Usher
 
 
 

We needed this. It might only be the third game of the season and there’s a long way to go, but we don’t want to have to start playing catch up this early if we have any ambitions of going one better than last year. The City defeat was a setback but if we could win at Spurs that would soften the blow, especially as Stoke succeeded where we failed and won at the Etihad.

 

Beating Spurs was vital in terms of morale too. If we’d lost again we’d have been on the floor with all manner of questions being asked about our title (and even top four) credentials, so it was great to see the team not only secure the three points, but also look like their old selves in the process. Rodgeball is back, baby!

 

I’m sure we all felt this was going to be a tough game, especially coming off that disappointing loss last Monday. Tottenham had started the season well and Pochettino is a good coach who has given us problems in the past, so on paper this was a difficult fixture for us coming so early into the season and with us still bedding in numerous new players.

 

All week I’d been sweating about this one, but when the teams were announced I looked at their line up and it suddenly hit me; What the hell have I been worrying about here? Spurs are bang average, there’s absolutely nothing to fear from that side whatsoever. If we played anywhere near our usual level we’d beat them with plenty to spare and that’s exactly what happened. We were not at our best - not even close - but it was more than enough to see off their sorry, lightweight arses.

 

I looked at their team and asked myself: "how many would get in our side?" The answer was only two - Lloris and Vertonghen. I wouldn’t have any of the others as we looked much stronger in every department and so it proved. Their midfield is especially poor, while the three playing behind Adebayor (despite costing a shitload) would do well to even make our bench. 5th place at best for Spurs this year I’d say.

 

It could easily have been 5-0 again like last year, but it could just as easily have been 6-3 as we were far from secure at the other end. Yep, the Liverpool of last season are back and I couldn’t be happier.

 

Still, at 3-0 it was encouraging how we made sure we saw it out rather than allow ourselves to get caught out and give them any hope. The opportunity was there to put Spurs to the sword but it was noticeable how we didn’t over commit when we counter attacked. We defended better at 3-0 than we did at any other point in the game I'd say. Some good may come of that Palace game after all if we learn from it and ensure there is never a repeat of what went down that night.

 

Right from the opening whistle this was the Liverpool we’ve become accustomed to. The opening two games had been a bit of a slog and we’d been laboured in much of our play, but Mario Balotelli’s introduction to the side saw a return to the football that catapulted us to within a whisker of the title. We look so much more threatening with two up front and Rodgers got his selection spot on.

 

We all wondered whether Balotelli would be able to strike up a rapport with Daniel Sturridge and it didn’t take long to get the answer. Some lovely build up play ended with Sturridge delivering an inch perfect cross to his new strike partner who really should have scored. Unfortunately his header was too close to Lloris who made the save. What a start that would have been.

 

Mario was all over the place, chasing defenders back into his own half, pressing the ball and even helping out in defence when needed. All encouraging signs; we know what he can do with the ball but the biggest question mark is whether he will do enough without it. So far so good.

 

Rodgers claimed afterwards that giving him responsibility is the best way to ensure he shows maturity. Treat him like a grown up and he’ll act like one. I’m not sure Balotelli will ever truly act like a grown up - and that’s part of his charm - but if Brendan can get him to buy into how we play the game then we’ll have a huge asset on our hands as he will score goals and wreak havoc with defences.

 

We saw flashes against Spurs of what he can do but he’s not match sharp yet. I can see him giving Villa kittens in a fortnight. Not literally, although you never know I guess. Had to laugh at Rodgers revealing that he told him to mark up from a corner only for Mario to say “I don’t do that”. “You do now” was his response.

 

It’s an interesting point actually. Balotelli is a big lad, yet no-one has ever told him to mark someone from a corner because they didn’t trust him to do it. Can’t say I blame them to be fair, but if Rodgers’ approach is right then this could be the making of Mario. I certainly liked what I saw from him in the hour he was on the field.

 

He needs to work on his heading though, he looks like he might be even worse than Sturridge in that department. As well as the one Lloris saved, he put another one disappointingly wide from close range. There was a shot from a well worked Gerrard corner that he put high over the bar, and another effort he miscued horribly when faced with an open goal 30 yards out. Sturridge was actually in acres of space and had Mario picked him out he’d almost certainly have scored, but let’s be honest here, we were all shouting “SHOOOOOT” when that ball fell to him weren’t we?

 

Rodgers had a good laugh about it at the time, perhaps aware that the cameras would be on him looking for any hint of disapproval. Sturridge had a little throwing of his arms in despair, but I doubt he’d have passed in that situation either. Hell, I wouldn’t have passed either and I’m shite. He got a little too excited and snatched at it I think, but next time that one flies into the net.

 

He was obviously a little bit rusty and no doubt a bit anxious too. He may well be a supremely confident lad but he’ll have still had some nerves and desperately wanted to make a good impression. Despite the missed chances he did just that. Some of his hold up play was excellent, and he linked up well with Sturridge and Sterling considering this was their first game together. He seems to have hit it off with Sturridge and Sterling already, they were laughing and joking together in the warm ups and that bodes well for the weeks and months ahead.

 

His mere presence made us better, because it allowed everyone else to just do what they did last season. Sterling is just brilliant at the tip of the diamond and this is surely how we have to play more often than not now. Sturridge looked a lot happier not having to be the lone striker and his first half display was a joy to behold.

 

His footwork in tight spaces is incredible at times, as we saw with the opening goal when he wriggled away down the right before rolling a lovely ball into the path of Henderson. At the time I thought it was just a poor shot from Hendo that Sterling converted at the far post, but the replay showed it was just an inch perfect cross. He had a couple of looks up to see where Sterling was and then put it on a plate for him. Great goal.

 

The early goal and the dominance we were showing suggested we could put Spurs away before half time. So it was a little frustrating how the rest of the half panned out, with missed chances and a growing feeling that we would do something stupid and let them back into it. We almost did too, twice.

 

Any problems we had were entirely of our own making. Spurs created nothing themselves and only looked a threat when we made a mistake. Lovren was wretched in the first half and Sakho wasn’t much better. Both improved after the break in fairness, especially Sakho as Lovren still had a few too many hairy moments for me, although he also made some timely interventions it should be said.

 

The second goal was always going to be key and thankfully we got it when Allen cleverly won himself a penalty after being dragged back by Dier (who seems a right twat doesn’t he?). I’m sure he could have stayed on his feet had he wanted to, but if he’d done that he wouldn’t have been given the penalty so he took the law into his own hands.

 

Allen had spoken earlier in the week of how we’re too fair for our own good at times and he’s right. A cynical foul here and there can be the difference between winning and losing, and if he’d stayed on his feet after that Dier jabroni had yanked at his shoulder then he’d have been an idiot. A sporting idiot, but an idiot nonetheless.

 

Gerrard just about buried the pen and gave us the breathing room we needed. Of course you can never completely relax at 2-0, not with this team anyway, but it felt like we had it all in hand now and when Moreno added a brilliant third with a spectacular solo goal there was no way back for Spurs. Not unless they’d pulled one back and we fell to pieces of course, which you can never rule out, but generally we defended well as a unit to see it out and probably should have increased our lead on the break.

 

Sterling missed the best chance when a fine break by substitute Emre Can created an opening for him. He did everything right as he walked across the face of goal leaving Spurs defenders on their arses in the process, but then produced the worst finish we might see all season. The shot barely even reached Lloris. Such a shame, it would have been a hell of a goal.

 

Rodgers described the run as being like Ricky Villa, and the finish being like Ricky Gervais. Sums it up nicely I think. Sterling made way for Jose Enrique late on, while Balotelli had earlier been replaced by Markovic. The bench looks so much stronger these days, and we’ve still got Adam Lallana to come in.

 

I think we saw enough from Balotelli to know that we’re going to be fine going forward now. I had some concerns after the opening two games as the 4-3-3 wasn’t really getting the best out of Sturridge but having two up front again made a difference and I’m confident we’ll still score more than most this season.

 

At the other end though we still have issues. It’s easy to look at the clean sheet and say it’s step in the right direction after the debacle at the Etihad, but we were just as bad if not worse at White Hart Lane. The difference? City punished the mistakes, Spurs didn’t.

 

Example 1: Lovren lets Adebayor run in behind him. He puts it over the bar. Same thing happened with Aguero the other night, he scored.

 

Example 2: 40 minutes in, Lovren goes for a ball that he should have left for Sakho. Neither win it and Chadli finds himself one v one against Mignolet. His shot is straight at the keeper who makes a fine save. 40 minutes in the other night at City, a mistake allowed Jovetic a sight of goal, he too shot straight at Mignolet but this time it went through the keeper and we were punished.

 

There were other defensive lapses too; off the top of my head I can recall Sakho passing the ball straight to a City player and Lovren having to save the day, while Lovren dived in on Adebayor twice in the second half and didn’t win the ball. Against better opposition they could have proved costly.

 

I can’t sit here and praise the defence for a clean sheet, as had Adebayor or Chadli put either of their easy chances away we’d all be complaining about Lovren for his mistakes. If it helps their confidence that we didn’t concede, great, but let’s not start sucking each others.. erm… patting each other on the back just yet.

 

The point is, we did a lot of things well defensively in both games but we keep making daft errors. Just because Spurs were too inept to make us pay doesn’t mean we can talk about a job well done.

 

There’s still plenty of room for improvement but any criticism has to be tempered by the fact this was the first time Sakho and Lovren had played together, and that three of the back four had only played three games or less for us. If we’re still looking this ropey in a few months then we have a problem, but for now it can be put down to teething problems.

 

Having said that, the full back play actually gave cause for much encouragement I thought. Moreno was obviously the headline maker with his brilliant goal and a good all round display, but Manquillo was really solid and composed on the other side too. It’s quite remarkable how comfortable he’s looked so far considering his age, lack of experience and the fact he’s only been in English football five minutes. He’s shown no sign of nerves whatsoever. He’s not flashy by any means and we haven’t seen much of him going forward yet but we may have another Arbeloa on our hands in this lad.

 

Moreno though, fucking hell. That goal was like watching a 22 year old John Arne Riise at Goodison and Highbury, only with the fast forward button pressed. Poor Andros Townsend just got completely mugged and even though he tried to chase back he was left in the young Spaniard’s slipstream. I think we can safely assume Alberto has now picked up the pace of the Premier League.

 

As great as the run and finish were, Rodgers was perhaps most pleased with the way he got right in Townsend’s face and bullied him off the ball. Against City he was in a similar situation with Navas but dropped off him and allowed the winger to turn and pick the pass from which Aguero scored. Brendan said he spoke with him and told him that’s not how we play and he needs to get tight to his man in future. He’s a quick learner I guess.

 

I made Moreno the star man just ahead of Sterling and Sturridge (brilliant in the first half, much quieter in the second but worked tirelessly til the end), but it’s encouraging that I felt most of the other players were not at their top level and can do quite a bit better than this. Being able to beat Spurs when operating at around 70% capacity shows how strong we can be.

 

It all comes down to not gifting goals to the opposition though, if we can avoid that then we’ll take a lot of stopping. I’m just not sure we can. Not yet anyway.

 

 

Team: Mignolet; Manquillo, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Gerrard, Henderson, Allen (Can), Sterling (Enrique); Sturridge, Balotelli (Markovic):


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With Navas it's tricky because if you get too tight he has the close control and trickery to get away from you and if you leave him too much room, he has the pace to get away from you. Anticipation is key to dealing with him and it comes more consistently with experience rather than exuberance. Moreno looks like he has the tools but his lack of experience with see him get exposed from time to time.

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Sums things up nicely Dave, enjoyed reading it as per. Exciting times ahead, Bring on the villa!!

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Good report, Dave. Very much in agreement with your assessment of our defensive showing. I have always had the feeling that it was not the players that were at fault, but the system. But let us see, it is still early days.

And Verthongen is shit by the way.

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Nice 1 Dave, not getting too carried away after 1 (admittedly brilliant) result but plenty of positives to talk about.

 

Sterling was frightening at times and Moreno is the fastest thing in the league.

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Guest Numero Veinticinco

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Nice 1 Dave, not getting too carried away after 1 (admittedly brilliant) result but plenty of positives to talk about.

 

Sterling was frightening at times and Moreno is the fastest thing in the league.

 

I'd like to see him have a foot race with Sterling. I think Sterling would knick it.

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I was impressed with the way Moreno accelerated away from Townsend with the ball.  He totally blew him away, no mean feat.  Markovic is jet-heeled as well, all of a sudden we have a left hand side that looks harder to get past and is potentially devastating when they break with the ball.

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