As the adrenaline gets back to normal, I finally find the senses to write my review on a mouth watering and heart thumping encounter. Liverpool to be honest before this game had very little chances to come to White Heart Lane and get a win. Poor away form and a Gerrard less team against a spurs team with amazing attacking prowess, who had sent Inter Milan the Champions of Europe packing and won away at Arsenal last week. We all wished for three away points but it always was an uphill task.
Liverpool were the better side and started with a very high tempo something Roy is trying to perfect. Good closing down and fast and good use of the ball. A midfield combination of Lucas and Raul was proving to be a very effective one, with both player knowing each others bearings. Torres and Ngog were leading the line well, Ngog specially did well with his back to goal, held the ball well, gave time to the midfielders to make runs and then distributed the ball well.
Spurs on the other hand had couple of dynamites on the wing, which only needed time to explode. From the start, it was pretty evident that, Lennon and Bale are going to try and run at the liverpool fullbacks at every given occasion. This was something that worried me the most. At start, Kuyt and Maxi came back and tracked the spurs wingers, the first have was Liverpools without a shadow of a doubt.
The second half started and the weaknesses of both teams were being exposed. Liverpool with their fullback who were getting out run but the spurs wingers and spurs whose central defense was breached on several occasions by Torres and Maxi. The game started to get open, slowly It was switching to the way spurs prefer it, ample space for fast players to exploit. Liverpool on the other hand did not have the pace to exploit it. On numerous occasions spurs wingers got behind the Liverpool fullbacks, whereas, Liverpool whenever the had space to run, were cut out by spurs fast back tracking defenders.
If we analyze both goals by Spurs we can clearly see that both Liverpool full backs were too wide and left gaps between them and the central defenders, that is what happens you have to tackle fast wingers with pace. So both goals were pretty well deserved by Spurs. This is exactly what liverpool lack, fast pacy and gifted wingers.
If there is anything which needs improvement in the tactical game of Liverpool is to make the back four more compact without the ball, Roy has worked on them to get wide but they need to be more compact without the ball, always you have to let the attacker run towards the byline rather than cut inside you. The other thing is Liverpools lack understanding and ideas on top of the opponents box. Many times in the game you could see Raul trying cheeky one touch chip balls waiting for the runs and expecting a player there. It is more of hit and wish rather than a synchronized attack like Arsenal are so good at.
The positives are ample, Raul for me is the stand out among all players. The speed of this passing and thought process is very impressive. Always calm in possession and very wise in distribution. He made the Spurs midfield look very weak. Lucas again gave a very battling performance, he is really improving of late. Torres is getting better but still a long way off. Ngog as I mentioned also did very very well.
Overall, very very improved Liverpool team performance. I always say football is a very simple game, when you do the basics right.
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