this time.
Results midweek had gone Spurs’ way, as they had at the weekend, this time Spurs couldn’t keep up their end of it in dropping to just their second defeat of the season.
Chelsea dropped two points on Tuesday, surprisingly to relegation fodder West Brom, and Chelsea lost as they both did at the weekend, while Leicester and Southampton couldn’t take advantage on Wednesday. Spurs were within seconds of of getting away with it again, until Liverpool got a last minute winner.
Jose changed things up from the start, Lo Celso was in for Ndombele and Davies in for Reguilon. The first one I liked, not so sure about the second. Just felt the Spaniard’s pace would have helped in reliving a bit of pressure.
Davies did defend well, it was a good defensive performance throughout was excellent but in another change Jose had gone 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 with everyone defending wide, to counter the Liverpool fullback s and wide forwards, Mane and Salah. This though left a gaping hole in the middle. And when Spurs got the ball there was nothing to go forward with, as they’d dropped into a back six.
Yes I get it they have got good wide men but City play that game and everything was covered perfectly, I mean Salah and Mahrez play the same game and they played the latter perfectly, just stopping him coming on his left, without changing the setup.
So a first half saw Liverpool with all the ball, while Spurs’ counters floundered very early in their path. The one time it did work it was lo Celso was on his own in the middle to play the killer pass.
Of course we didn’t see this live as Amazon Prime were helping Ally McCoist and John Champion get through their mutual vinegar strokes over Liverpool’s opener, which had come seven minutes earlier, and they were still creaming themselves over.
Apparently that opening goal was well deserved. Salah’s shot bouncing off Dier and Toby to loop over Hugo. Deserved. You notice this, if a team defends against Spurs and gets a result it’s well done them. Spurs defend like that and the other side deserves a goal, or a win. Yes Hugo had saves to make but most of them were easy ones.
Anyway, Hugo rolled the ball out – made a change from humping it into touch on the right – to Lo Celso, he left the chasing home player before a glorious outside of the foot, eye of a needle, ball to Son, who was through on goal. just the keeper to beat, which he did expertly. Son in such a position, you’re always confident. Others, well, we’ll come to that.
So Spurs went in at the break undeservedly level according to the pundits.
Things changed up for the second half, a switch back to the old ways of the standard formation. Why change to suit others? And from the off they had chances, better chances and play was going forward, rather than stopping dead in its tracks.
Unfortunately two of the three great chances came for Bergwijn. It wasn’t coming off for the Dutchman all night, attacking wise. A loft forward by Toby was missed by the Liverpool defender and Bergwijn was through but he sliced across the ball and sent it curling away from the far post. Another hump forward, Harry nods on, Son skiffs it behind him with the head and again Bergwijn was through in a similar position, opening his body he made better contact but hit the post.
It lead to a corner and from Son’s set piece the best chance fell to Harry but he made a right mess of his header, to not even hit the target, the ball bouncing over the top. A shocker. Could have been two clear. Should have been.
Of course they would live to regret those spurned chances. Again that set piece Achilles. A corner and one of the smallest guys on the pitch heads in the winner on the 90th minute. Dier seemed to be taken out in the build up. Of course this merited no mention.
Not sure about Jose saying the best team lost. Yes, Spurs had the better chances probably and defended expertly. They just got it wrong in the first half – not sure about Jose’s changes either, Moura for Lo Celso seemed an odd one. Hugo didn’t have any chance with either goal but made some good saves, while Spurs man-of-the-match was probably Aurier. I thought he had an excellent game up against mane. You’re not going to stop Mane all the time but Aurier was close and kept nipping in to nick the ball, without looking like he was going to give away a penalty as he did so often before.
Jose is right about Klopp getting away with it on the sideline. Every time you saw him he was haranguing the fourth official. Flashes the fake gnashers and gets away with it like Wenger used to.
It’s the first defeat in 12, a drop down to second place, so not exactly the end of the world and in a way probably better not to be top, just have to make sure it’s a blip and get back on track for Leicester at the weekend. Don’t pick a team/formation to counter them.