Liverpool (Away) 05.05.2024

With Destiny Udogie missing from the starting line-up, Emerson Royal was playing left back for the second match running, with teenager Mikey Moore handed a place on the bench for his outstanding performances for the Under-18s.

From the kick off Tottenham were comfortably controlling possession winning a corner after 80 seconds with Liverpool barely getting a touch of the ball.  That was cleared, but Son won a free-kick on the left when Alexander-Arnold tumbled him over and Porro’s delivery was headed out to Bissouma, who smacked a shot high into the Kop.  It had been all Spurs for the first seven minutes, but then Salah got space on the right of the box and played a cross with the outside of his foot that inadvertently came off the bar.  That gave them a bit of belief and Salah put in a low shot from the right that Vicario saved with his legs and Elliott followed it up with Romero blocking his shot on the line on his knees.  Salah then hit the post, but was flagged offside anyway.

Another good phase of passing gave Brennan Johnson space on the left, but his final ball across goal wasn’t attacked by Son or Kulusevski.  Liverpool then went forward and Gakpo put a ball in from the left that Salah attacked from deep and his header went in at Vicario’s near post, with our keeper getting a hand to it, but was expecting it to go across him and so he couldn’t keep it out.  Once more, we had conceded first and would have to come from behind if we were to get anything out of the match.

Vicario was alert to the danger when Diaz got the ball that broke his way and Venom came out at his feet to block him off and concede a corner.  The usual pushing and shoving and blocking off followed, with it finally taken and headed off the other side to give Liverpool another corner, which Vicario took high in the middle of the box.  Too often the Liverpool midfield swarmed over our players, forcing us to play long from the back, which wasn’t working, with balls through the Liverpool defence being over-hit too.  Romero did well again with the home side taking a quick throw and Alexander-Arnold put a bouncing ball intot he box, which Cristian did well to nod back into the arms of Vicario with two Liverpool players behind him.  Just before that Gakpo had done a 7.5 dive in the box when challenged by van de Ven, but rightly nothing was given.  A couple of times, Tottenham hit on the break, but indecision or turning back slowed the progress or delayed it until the chance was gone.  Royal did well on two occasions, one on Salah when he looked odds on to get a shot away in the box and then beating Elliott on the edge of the box, but then he gave the ball away cheaply.  With 40 minutes on the clock, Alexander-Arnold hit a shot from 20 yards that Emerson threw himself in the way of and then the ball was switched to the left, where Gakpo tried a scissors kick, but put it wide.

From a Spurs goal-kick, Romero played a loose pass out and it resulted in Alexander-Arnold firing a left-foot shot over the bar from 18 yards.  Vicario was called into action when Elliott took a shot and he beat it out, but when they got possession again, Gakpo crossed to the far post from the right and it was turned into the middle of the area for Salah to shoot.  Reacting well, Vicario got down to it, but could only push it to Robertson, who stuck it in from close range, just before the 45 minutes were up.  It was a blow for Spurs who were up against it, but still in the game at 0-1, however, the second goal made the way back even harder.  There was some dissent in the ranks, as Guglielmo Vicario had to step between Romero and Royal as they went off for half-time with words being exchanged between the two defenders.

While the team had looked alright on the ball, they rarely looked threatening and Liverpool had been more clinical with taking their chances.  There was one at the start of the second half for Tottenham, Bissouma took the ball off Endo and Son wasn’t aware that Quansah was behind him, so wasn’t quick enough to the ball in to him when we had three on two.  Liverpool broke away, a foul in the centre-circle was played on by the ref, allowing Salah a run on goal, but his effort was a soft dink into Vicario’s hands that was a relief for Spurs.  When Royal was double-teamed by Salah and Elliott, the midfielder won the ball and clipped a ball to the far post where Gakpo headed in from eight yards out.

Time and again we were pressed into giving the ball away and only a block by Royal stopped Salah getting another shot on target and Liverpool were targeting our left back, often having three players moving in on Royal with or without the ball.  Spurs eventually made Alisson save when Porro’s right wing ball in produced a diving header from Johnson that the keeper stopped low just in front of his line.  Brennan was then quick to close Alisson down and blocked his clearance, but it went off to the side of the area.  When a long cross-field ball found Salah, the ball was laid off to Elliott, who took the ball inside to fire a left foot drive into Vicario’s top right hand corner.   Another big loss was on the cards, as Ange brought on Skipp, Maddison and Richarlison for Royal, Kulusevski and Bentancur.

It made an immediate impact with Richi causing havoc running at the defence and the ball pinged around inside the Liverpool area until it came outt o Maddison, who was tripped by the serial offender Endo, just outside the D.  James hit the wall with the free-kick and then, when we regained possession, struck a low shot straight at Alisson.  Endo went off before he got booked and Robertson also exited, with Gomez and Bajcetic replacing them.  Son and Richarlison linked well until Son got the ball stuck under his feet in the box and it was poked out to Maddison, whose rising shot didn’t trouble the keeper.  

Heung-Min got away into space on the left and dribbled past Quansah, but his ball into the area was into a space where no white shirt was and it was calmly played away, but in the 72nd minute, Bissouma played an incisive ball inside Liverpool’s left-back Gomez and Johnson produced the kind of ball that Richarlison thrives on, tucking the ball away low at the near post across the keeper (similar to a couple of goals the two have linked up with previously).  Liverpool’s substitutions and taking their foot off the pedal with a big lead had allowed Spurs a goal, which may have just been a consolation, but the home team’s forward momentum was lost.

It became even more obvious that was the case when Porro played the ball inside to Maddison, just forward of the centre circle and he switched the ball to Skipp on the left.  The midfielder slipped a pass inside the box to Richarlison, who had three yards of space around him eight yards out, but with his back to goal, so he laid the ball behind him to Son.  With Alisson coming out, Son shot lost to the keeper’s right from the penalty spot and buried it into the bottom corner to make it 4-2 with a quarter of an hour left.  

Liverpool had a chance to seal their win when the ball went back and forth across the Tottenham area and Gravenbach’s shot into the ground headed towards Salah.  van de Ven left it for Salah, four yards out, who inexplicably flicked at the ball and it went wide off the post.  It was an astounding miss and Alexander-Arnold went almost as close with an effort from two yards inside the Spurs half that caught Vicario off his line, but went a couple of feet over the bar.  Porro played a fine ball in to Richarlison in the box, but he couldn’t get it out of his feet and then Son ran at defenders in the box, but eventually lost out, before Lo Celso had a shot, but it was weak and straight at the keeper.  Szoboszlai shot wide as he ran to the right side of the goal, but with the game getting stretched, Richarlison brought a save as he went across Alisson from the left and Johnson challenged for the ball as it went into the air off the keeper’s hand at the far post, where Gomez cleared with what looked like a high boot.  It was at Anfield, so never looked likely to bring a penalty.

Going into the final of the 90 minutes, it was only Spurs fans that you could hear singing and the Anfield crowd were stunned into silence, except when they felt entitled to a free-kick.  Maddison flashed a ball across the face of the Liverpool goal, as Spurs got Son running at Alexander-Arnold.  Richi got away again, taking down Romero’s long pass, but it got nipped off his toe for a corner and from it, Son got the ball in the box, but tried a shot, when there were players directly in front of him and Johnson was free to his left. 

Again, Salah thought he had wrapped it up, but his finish from Nunez’s low ball across from the left was ruled out as the Uruguayan was offside in the build-up.  Nunez should have scored when he was clean through, but Vic rushed out to stop his shot with his body just outside his area and that was then end of the game.

The Spurs substitutions brought some urgency and attacking threat, but it was after being four down and that was too big a gap to pull back.  It did lead to the Liverpool team suffering an attack of jitters, but they were comfortably ahead by then.  Having pulled it back to 3-3 last season and then lost it at the death was gutting, but this was a little worse, going so far behind in the match.

It is not worth getting worked up about the run of results, as when the fixture list came out, it looked to be the toughest part of our season.  The concession of soft goals is costing us badly at the moment and while it was a valiant fight-back it was too little too late, as it had been too often.  Getting tighter defensively, especially in games against those teams around us, is going to be a task Ange has to address.  The lack of fluidity that was present earlier in the season is a worry, because recently we haven’t looked like scoring very often or in quick succession, which was a trademark in our successful results.

Liverpool were coming into the match off the back of two home defeats (the last to Palace), so some sort of reaction was to be expected.  However, with City and then two of the sides at the bottom of the table still to come, our performances might give an indication of who will still be at the club next season and whether we will have European football to tempt players to join.

East Stan

• Heung-Min Son made his 300th Premier League appearance for Tottenham.
• Emerson Royal made his 100th appearance for Spurs in all competitions.
• 60,075 was the biggest crowd a Liverpool home match between the two sides.