VS
Tottenham's Manager Harry Rednknapp has been busy this week talking about his club's title credentials after a successful weekend but Isn't it like to early now?...Especially in a week where they were facing a Liverpool side that have shown some improvement by grabbing 13 from a possible 18 lately that could cause that title credentials talk to go bye bye.For the teams though,Tottenham Decided to put in Rafael Van Der Vaart and Wilson palacios for Roman Palvychencko and the Injured Jenas Respectively...For Liverpool,Lucas who served a one match ban was back in the squad in replace of Christian Poulsen.Hmm,I though Joe Cole would be in the match but he didn't make the grade...
Surprisingly,the match kicked off with both the teams looking to go at it from the very first minute(And Liverpool look like a team who are always negative attackers). Both Liverpool and Tottenham were retaining healthy possession of the ball and were getting some decent touches of the ball early on.
Things however took a toll for the worse for Tottenham in the eleventh minute. Rafael Van der Vaart, managed to play a back heel in the Liverpool box, but while doing so, the player managed to pull his hamstring. The hamstring had been giving him some serious trouble formerly and as a result of the injury he was replaced by Jermain Defoe.It will be bad news for Tottenham as he has been a clear talisman for the team and Hamstring Injuries don't normally heal fast.
The match however managed to continue once the player was replaced and it was Liverpool who had the first real chance of the night via Maxi. Torres ran past Gallas and left him for dead before teeing up Maxi around twenty yards from the Tottenham goal. However the midfielder whipped in a shot that took a decent save from Gomes.
The next chance fell to Tottenham via Luka Modric. The midfielder managed to find space before firing low into the goal. Reina got their in time to parry it away, but the ball fell to Defoe who was about to unleash the killer blow, but Jamie Carraghar almost uncharacteristically dived in to make a superb blocking tackle to save his team from a certain early concede to once again prove his importance at the back...
Harry Redknapp was forced to make another unplanned substitution when after 34 minutes Sebastien Bassong replaced Younes Kaboul who limped off with what appeared to be a knee injury, although what caused the injury was not clear even with the benefit of repeat viewings of replays.
The Liverpool were really surprising for me as they didn't only depend of Torres but in fact they helped him in attack too especially Maxi Rodriguez...And all that Pressure finally paid off When in the 42nd minute when a deep cross by Meireles into the box was cleared scruffily by the Tottenham defence and Skrtel was the quickness to react to stab it home for a shock lead to take to the break that send Liverpool fans into raptures including a lady that was quite near to the camera i guess :P....
Well in fact actually just before the break,Some silky football by liverpool via Torres and Maxi broke the Argentinan free but he miscued his kick and the ball gently rolled to the keeper.Liverpool seriously need to take this chances at all cause and never make a school boy error like that!..Anyway Second Half,Liverpool once again were the more deadly and This time Torres found himself free with only the keeper to spare but Bassong showed that he also has some defence ability as he sprung just in time to hack at Torres in time to stop all advances.
Well Unfortunately since then it was All Tottenham and the best chance of Tottenham came through Gareth Bale when he shot seemed to have gone in with some fans already celebrating but Meireles finally had some use of his ball head as he cleared it off the line.8 minutes later though more worries for Liverpool as Tottenham were awarded a penalty as Bale's free kick was handled by Ngog who didn't have to actually carry his hands.Probably he wanted to shield himself from the kick but putting up your hands isn't the best of choices.It was the second straight week Tottenham had a free kick through a handball and in similar fashion...
Up Step Jermain Defoe to disappoint as his shot flew wide to record his 5th penalty miss out of 6 to keep Spurs still chasing Liverpool although they have clearly dominated..Tottenham started to get frustrated and soon they were using their pace against the Kops and A brilliant run by Modric into the box soon came to a goal as His pass cross goal which was intended for Crouch was knock in By skrtel to produce his second goal in the game but just not for the right team.
Liverpool didn't give up though as they continued to Attack and Some controversy as Kuyt looked to have brought down by Akotto in the 70th minute although replays showed that it should have been.That soon came back to haunt Liverpool,well almost....As on the 89th minute it seemed like Tottenham had taken the lead. Crouch flicked on a free kick towards Lennon, who headed it into the path of Defoe who blasted the ball into the back of the net which was awarded as an offside by the linesman to the frustration of the Tottenham fans in the 89th minute.But they soon made up as with 2 minutes already into injury time.Ekotto had one last lash at it which went through the whole field and Koschesky once again failed to Contain Lennon who used his Pace to get to goal and disappoint the Kops in this Cold chilly day to record their 5th goal scored in the last ten minutes this season...
Well Overall,I still think that Spurs have to improve their habit of always letting in the first goal of matches and instead start like how they finish the game to be in the save spot...While Liverpool have to continue putting pressure on teams when they have a lead and not retreat like how they did it against Tottenham..Anyway my opinion is that it was Liverpool's best away performance actually for a long time,they played very positively by spawning two strikers up front instead of the usual only Torres up front.And it was a also a first time which i actually seen some teamwork showed by the other players to help out the strikers instead of putting one striker up there and playing in long balls and hoping Torres could do some magic with it or something chasing it and it will be the same old story for Liverpool.
Liverpool could have won it actually if they continued playing like what they did in the first half,totally steam rolled the midfielders with Palacios making me also think as though he was part of the Liverpool squad.But with Tottenham getting to their sense back and Defoe especially coming on that prove the main point of Tottenham's win against Arsenal last week with his pace and all.And They start turning to Crouch by putting in long balls for him to flick on to the faster wingers up front.There were all the problems started...Especially Koschesky inability to stop the pace of Lennon,His placing was all out especially he being flat footed most of the time.For me,His not a player that is a liverpool type...
Anyway talking about to much about Liverpool though,for Tottenham's title credentials though one thing they have to improve is their defence because i have calculated that in the last 26 games they played,They have letten in 16 goals as the opening goals which is not a good stat as champions type.People have told me about the injury list of the defenders like King and Dawson out..But i think that is just nonsense because they got players like Gallas,Kaboul and Bassong still in the team and i Think they are quality players so all that injury crap is nonsense..
TOTTENHAM XI:Gomes,Hutton,Gallas,Kaboul,Ekotto,Palacios,Lennon,Bale,Modric,Van Der Vaart,Crouch
Subs Used:Bassong,Sandro,Defoe
LIVERPOOL XI:Jose Reina,,Skrtel,Johnson,Carragher,Konchesky,Lucas,Kuyt,Meireles,Rodriguez,Torres,Ngog
Subs Used:Aurelio,Krygiakos
MAN OF THE MATCH:Aaron Lennon
No comments:
Post a Comment