THESE two statements are equally true:
- Liverpool had the hardest of hard lines
- Liverpool were lucky to take a point from the game.
It was a crazy evening at Anfield with Liverpool spending much of the game either acting — or being — second best.
Second best seemed a choice in the first half. Liverpool opened the scoring and then chose to sit in and look to pick Tottenham off. They really should have done. Three or four times Liverpool are the better execution of a final pass away from 2-0 and it is hugely frustrating just before the break when Salah should release Mane but overhits the pass.
Liverpool sitting in suited them and suited the game. The midfield three seemed in charge and both centre backs were winning their battles. It wasn’t easy; Spurs are too good a side for that, but Liverpool weren’t being carved open nor were any players being exposed. That threat was present and Davidson Sanchez — in particular — was having a torrid time.
Through that first 45 minutes Spurs seemed to change their shape three times to try to offer themselves both more security and more threat. They were looking for answers to Liverpool’s approach. That approach also saw Liverpool at their most muscular under Jürgen Klopp, giving away foul after foul. Some of them weren’t fouls being fair to The Reds, referee Moss having a first half that was poor but low-key compared to what was to come.
That control without the ball Liverpool enjoyed first half was knocked aside second. The Spurs manager got his lads in, gave them some belief and had them hitting diagonals to full backs to open up space and exploit Liverpool’s front three, making them uncertain whether or not to cheat.
Tottenham overloaded centre mid and suddenly Liverpool were being passed through with far too much ease and were carrying less and less threat as the uncertainty passed through the ranks.
At times, The Reds were too desperate to counter when they would have been better served to take a touch. At times when they did counter well the final ball was just off.
Liverpool’s changes didn’t help, if anything they hindered. Wijnaldum and Oxlade-Chamberlain on were not that questionable, though yours truly would have retained Henderson, but the back three move was earlier than you would expect.
Regardless, sometimes subs don’t work; they just don’t play well. It happens.
The key thing was this — Tottenham just kept coming.
They were a credit to themselves and showed faith in their way of going about their business and they deserved their eventual reward. Karius punched something he could have caught and Wanyama struck the ball beautifully: 1-1, and the game didn’t so much feel delicately poised as Liverpool would just have to hang on.
The remainder is about referee Moss, his assistant and Mo Salah.
Strangely all three of these men are meant to be amongst the best in the world at what they do. They are all considered among the elite in this country. No doubt all three have tough jobs. But only Salah covers himself in glory, rescuing Liverpool with true brilliance, the essence of heroic, brave football.
The other two have no business in this match review. They shouldn’t be active participants in the contest. They shouldn’t need to be talked about. But here we are. Here we are. The second decision is in particular a shocker — a robbery.
Forget the points. It isn’t about the points. The greatest shame is the loss of the celebration, the loss of the pandemonium. The degradation of the brilliance of Salah and the brilliance of our brilliance, our exuberance. The theft is that of the moment.
Were the penalty nailed on that would be understandable. It simply wasn’t. These were the hardest of hard lines for a side who deserved little else. But what they deserved and what Mo Salah deserved and what we deserved is all very different indeed.
It hurts. It should. I want that to count for something, for everything.
We wuz robbed. And on 85 we’d have took it.
This game of ours. Best out of it. Can’t wait ’til we play again.
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Thanks for the review, must have been Shite to write. What a frustrating game; that’s linesman FFS!!! He was dead set on a draw that linesman…. ref needs to grow a pair and trust his own initial decision when he waived off the second.
VRA, I understand how it effects the crowd but just mic the 4th official and make him make announcements regarding VRA replays and the final decision so the crowd knows exactly what’s going on. I prefer correct calls over the human element all day long!
Up the REDS!
I used to always moan about linesmen not having a backbone. Well, here we are.
Also, as much as this hurts, keep VAR away from football. That shit brings a whole different kind of frustration, a disconnect. Don’t want it. I’d rather lose sleep over shitty refs.
Shitty Refs that keep only penalising us for naff all. Sorry but sick to death of how much cheating goes on against us.
Never been a fan of Jon Moss, he always seems to fund a way to effect a game, just; you tolerate these things from time to time because it’s human nature. However, Moss seems yo have a pattern of this across almost ever big game he’s officiated, here it is: He should be out as a select official for matches between teams in the top four, and Derbies, he quite simply bottles it.
The Lamella and Kane are both offside for their respective penalties, moreover, VVD knows more about neurological surgery than where the he’ll Lamella is when he starts trying to clear the ball.
The press (and Neil to some extent) put this down to hard lines, and close calls etc, but in cases like this you better have it dead on, because it can mean, literally, millions £’s for teams and players at this level.
If Moss is on an official sheet for the rest of the season, he owes us a penalty in every game, but we ought to score five just to be safe from the bottle of this bumbling moron.
You have said this correct. 2 bad calls. Both where and still offside all day long and both Spurs players are simulating.
I have emailed the FA to ask them to explain themselves. Also sent them a copy of the Football Rules to help them with all this.
We need to just suck it up with the decisions. Everything goes in Spurs’ favour. They are the trophyless golden boys of British football, regarded as a top side without ever actually having to be. It all drops for them, it all goes for them. All of it. And because of the narrative around Kane his dive won’t be mentioned, the fact that he didn’t touch it in our fucking box for the second season running won’t be mentioned, the fact that he’s actually an arrogant cretin won’t be mentioned. Narrative – it’s what shapes people’s views on footballers. What about Alli eh? No contribution at all except for cheating. He’s ALWAYS at it.
People will say Kane is entitled to an ego, but where is Salah’s ego? Two goals, one of them absolutely outrageous, and his only concern is giving his shirt to a lad in the crowd.
@Dan brilliant!
I thank you!
I’ve had a thing about Spurs for a few seasons now but today confirms to me that it’s not irrational!
@Dan Yeah I know what you mean.
Off to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. We (philly) are underdogs, and The Patriots are the darlings of the NFL.
No connection to Spurs, but watching LFC today was a precursor to perhaps an upset this time.
Catch you later Dan.
Take care mate
Utter trip especially about Kane, both were penalties and there was no continually fouling still this is the kind of comment you get when only iooking at the game with one red eye.
Or when you see things for what they are. People can’t let themselves be deceived by this idea that absolutely any contact in the area, even the most minute, is a penalty.
I get the feeling that many of the fans saying they were penalties against us would say the opposite if it was Mane and Salah being fouled.
Is it right that Sky had “Harry Kane 100 Club” scheduled for 7.30pm last night? As in, before kick off when he was on 99?
No wonder Jeff Shreeves was happy to let the 4th official review using his monitor (which is illegal, by the way…)
Well said. I agree spot on analysis
Have you read the Liverpool Echo’s article regarding Pochettino’s talking about diving. Says it all. – https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/tottenham-boss-mauricio-pochettinos-past-14246559
I am confused as to why the second penalty is debatable. VVD walloped him…
Because Liverpool players got kicked and on one occasion even took a shove in the face and a boot in the face while standing up and nowt was given. As for wallop. said on another article, come across and I’ll give a good old fashion kick someone in the air, agricultural Sunday Ale House Pubs style and then afterwards you can decide if VVD walloped him or that he basically dived into VVD who is trying to move his leg out of the way and went down like he had been shot, not knowing where to clutch.
He was also in an offside position when the ball went forward from a Spurs player and was interfering with play, this being the rules. That and the linesman celebrates the awarding of the pen with a fist pump.
Read the Liverpool Echo’s article regarding Pochettino and diving. All 3 cases are simulation and apparently the FA said they would stamp this out and ban players doing it. Time to make amends and penalise the players that conned their officials or go the other route and ban their inept officials. However this is the FA and we are Liverpool, so they will probably ban half our team based on the balance of probability (despite nothing to substantiate) and looking shifty.
He really didn’t wallop him in any sense of the word. Contact was pitifully minimal.
I know Lamela’s reaction made it look like he was walloped but that’s the point.
Thanks for the write-up Neil. I was expecting more emotion from you though :), but thanks anyways for taking the time to write.
Spurs are average. I will say it again. Spurs are average as they only flatter to deceive like their diving specialists. Those two should try out for the English Olympic Diving team.
We didn’t yield despite the Wanyama fluke. I would like to see him hit those every week. Yeah right!
We struggled through the second half and still got the better of them. The subs let us down. Perhaps Jordan was struggling with his injury, and Milner was looking spent. Mane was still out of form (I hope that is the only reason).
I am disappointed and was angry earlier, but I am even more determined to get past the negativity that has permeated through our supporters and also here on TAW.
We can make top 4, but we need to keep this momentum and improve.
Up the Reds!!!
I passing in final third is horrific.
Thought a draw was a fair result even though the spuds got some lucky decision.
Next couple of weeks are vital, with the likes of spurs playing big teams and us playing, ‘Lesser teams’
Feck it. Ah blast. Shoulda won. Kept away from the result all day,playing and cooking for and putting the kids to bed. Just watched it now. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Was this the same ref who sent off Mane for a high boot against Man City? Why did he not send off their defender when he nearly took Trent’s head off in the second half? It seems to me that this ref is just not up to the job. It’s time to bring in VAR (with a bit of refinement) to stop these kind of refs spoiling our results.
Putting aside the ref and the result, we play like that for the remainder of the season and we win 9 out of our last 12. That gets us close to 80 points. Let’s do this.
Today I actually thought we defended very well. Wanyama will never score another goal like that one and on another day that second penalty is never given. Fine margins.
However just like against City neither our substitutions or our defensive strategy when leading where good enough. Quite simply when we lose our attacking edge and try and contain the opposition good stuff very rarely comes from this. Against City the subs made took away all our attacking potency and threat and left us with nothing dangerous on the pitch for City to worry about. Thus they could lay siege to our penalty box and never fear about any threat in behind or pace on the break.
It was similar again today, only today our regression started before the substitutions were made. Perhaps Pochettino simply won the tactical battle of the second half, but at times it didn’t even look like we wanted to counter. We were well and truly penned in and our substitutions did nothing to help change that situation Like I said, we did defend well for large parts of the game but as one of the old cliches goes, at 1-0 anything can happen. And christ did a lot happen at 1-0.
And I’m going to say this because it’s frustrating and even though I know it’s knee jerk as would I even say it if we won etc etc and I’ll probably be told to bore off, but can anyone honestly say that at 1-0 it wouldn’t have been nice and bloody helpful and reassuring to see the poor, tired figure of Bobby Firmino taken off and Aubameyang come on? I know I know; the transfer window is old news. We go with what we have now and it’s been done to death so I’ll shut up. But fuck me, we need a win against Southampton next week and it would be really nice if two of the front three could be rested so they’re fresh for Porto. But are Ings and Solanke enough to get the job done on the south coast? I guess time will tell. The circle of life continues and tomorrow never knows.
Klopp said no to a body coming in just for the sake of it but why should it be for the sake of it get one of the one’s you have on that tablet I just worry about the team as we are more intense than our rivals and might run out of steam one of the front three will need a rest but who to fill in let’s pray for the best
To focus on Lovren for a moment, I think he’s been rather harshly treated by some. Carra, who can barely disguise his loathing for Lovren these days, said he was stupid to have gone for the ball and played Kane onside. However, Lovren’s seen Kane has made a run behind him and there’s a pass on the way that will find him if he doesn’t stop it. Is Lovren supposed to let the ball go trusting that Kane will be called offside? With any offside decision being close it would’ve been irresponsible had Lovren not have tried to have blocked the pass, it was just unfortunate he didn’t make a solid contact. Had Lovren let the ball go unchallenged and Kane had been called onside and scored Carra would’ve been the first to slaughter him.
Take away the controversy regarding two dubious penalties and the truth is both Lovren and van Dijk have had good games and they appear to have an understanding. We should be doing all we can to support this partnership, not undermine it with needless criticism.
Agree. I am starting to phase Carragher’s criticism out now because I believe it’s all for effect so he can’t be accused of bias.
He slaughtered Karius last season in shocking fashion, he’s always at Lovren and was talking about van Dijk’s weight last week.
Lovren didn’t play Kane onside. Not by the letter of the law. It needs to be a deliberate pass from the defender to play Kane onside. No chance that’s what that was.
Nope. Moss didn’t even know if Lovren had touched it. It was shambolic officiating from both of them.
I’m more angry about the Kane dive though, because that’s precisely what it was. I don’t subscribe to this idea of players having “the right” to go down. It was a disgraceful act of cheating from a player who will get away with it because of his nationality and status.
Kane was offside, pure and simple. Lovren did naff all wrong… Trust me, I have slated the guy when he has got things wrong, but that was cheating Spurs player who simulate and cheating officials. Fine margins, but when you are playing against 14 players on the pitch and 1 has a whistle and the others have flags and they seem happy to give Spurs everything (which is the same as the media), then basically we wouldn’t have won regardless, as the ref would be still playing today in the hope of letting Spurs get something from the game.
Lovren did naff all wrong. Apart from being a professional footballer who failed to have the ability to kick the football, allowing it to go through to Kane in the first place.
At half time we deserved to be AT LEAST 1-0 up – perhaps 2-0. At full time we deserved the point we got – but I don’t always want what we deserved. Football sometimes gives you something you don’t deserve – and on 92mins we had stolen it – against the ‘run of play’ – and we don’t get enough of them. Is it my bias or are Sky actually anti-LFC? if they are – and being such a powerful influence on the game as a whole – is it any wonder why it also feels like decisions go against us?? (paranoid!).
Alarmingly we looked dead on our feet at 60-65. Bringing Matip on made some sense, but also made us even deeper – couldn’t believe how many times Ali and Erikson could collect and turn in the 2nd half. It’s a point – probably deserved (?)
It’s nice to get one you don’t technically deserve. Goodness knows enough teams get things out of us they don’t deserve on the basis of performance level.
It was a wonderful moment Salah’s goal. It should have been the winner. We were had by the officials.
Glad Sky Sports caught the lino celebrating the penalty with a fist pump. Cheating bastard. Didn’t spot either player offside for either pen. In fact didn’t spot any of the offside decisions and gave Liverpool naff all, all game. In fact didn’t even spot the Spurs player who took a throw in that occurred half way in their half, inside our half. – He is a cheat and the ref is garbage, as he proven time and again. Both need to be kicked out of the game.
Ali, Kane and Lamela are cheaters! It was so fucking clear that Spurs were looking to go down in the box all game. This whole “don’t touch an opponent in the box” is absolute bullshit. That same touch in the middle of the park is not a foul so why is it in the box….mindless thinking. And players these days….grown ass men…..pretending to be fouled in the box….sad state of affairs……I hope Liverpool never stoops to that level. Fuck i’m gutted by that late late penalty.