Liverpool 2 Tottenham 0

Liverpool 2 Tottenham 0
Kuyt 6
Kuyt 90+3 pen

That wasnt a great game by us but it was a very very valuable 3 points and deserved, which helps. The early goal helped us I think but we created more of the scoring chances in the match so Spurs can have no quibbles.

I’m still trying to figure out the formation though, which had many defenders again. Clearly we are missing many of the first team players and Rafa would seem to be positioning players cautiously. You could describe the formation as 3-2-2-2-1 or 5-4-1 or something like that with the players as follows:

————— Reina ————–
– Carra — Kyrgiakos — Skrtel —-
Degen ———————– Insua
—— Masch —– Lucas ———-
———– Aquilani ——— Riera
———— Kuyt —————–

There were 10 min run-outs for N’Gog (Aquilani) and Maxi Rodgriguez (Riera). Babel was probably on his phone twittering for most of the match!

So we played with 8 defensive players and 3 with any attacking flair, and its arguable where Dirk is better as a defending attacker or as an attacker!

Liverpool’s style was clumsy and hap-hazard if anything with not a lot of thought or unity of purpose about the play I thought. Tottenham though were not their recent lively selves. The early goal helped us, as Kuyt on the off-chance took a long shot which went in. Its rare for Kuyt to shoot from distance never mind score!

Liverpool played with a greater sense of urgency than Spurs. Kuyt had a chance cleared off the line, and Riera hit the bar early in the second half. Spurs were creating very little, and Defoe was offside for that disallowed goal. Luckily the linesman did give it though as sometimes they arent.

Reina was brought into the action with a fine save but Liverpool rounded off the match with further chances from Degen, Kyrgiakos, N’Gog and Kuyt. Liverpool then got the penalty at the death to make
it 2-0. It was a deserved victory but far from polished and nothing to write home about. The tally at the end read Liverpool’s 13 attempts to Spurs 7.

So where does that leave us now? Well, Rafa is saying that we are now back in the race for 4th. I presume by that he thought we were out of it, which is not a good sign!

Well, we are certainly still in the race for 4th, the table reads as follows:

38 Tottenham (Man City p21)
37 Liverpool
36 (Aston Villa p21)

and 3 pts against one of the competing teams is part of a 6-pointer, if you know what I mean, so very valuable. But the malaise in the team is still there I think. There will be tougher matches than this as somehow Spurs made it easy for us.

Do we seriously think we can get 4th place with Dirk (as hard as he works and all) as our target man and Aquilani as the player supposed to play off him, a player that in his career has seldom scored any goals???

I’m still worried, very worried ….

- Redspider