They dominated possession, had a higher pass completion percentage, and were superior in the air, but Tottenham still limped away 3-0 losers. How could this be? Counter attack and positioning. All three of Liverpool goals were due to anticipating our opponent's movements and responding quickly. That takes practice and talent, an ode to our mad Professor Rodgers.
What made it most impressive is that Gerrard had an uncharacteristically poor performance on attack, but made up for it on defence. He completed just 71.1% of his passes, his lowest amount for a long time, but did have 3 tackles and 8 clearances. Without some of those clearances, it may have been a closer match.
Gerrard's bi-polar display was quite indicative of many other LFC 'stars'. Sterling was tremendous on the ball, scored a great goal, but his passing was poor (69.7%)and he really should have had scored from point blank range. Lovren was impressive as well with 4 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 13 clearances, but his passing was also dreadful and he had to make two potential goal-saving tackles that were probably his fault to begin with.
Balotelli and Allen were not at their best, but Manquillo and Sturridge were the worst of the bunch. The former was clearly rattled and wasted passes throughout, while the latter seemed to be trying to hard to make things happen. I don't want to say he is trying to make up for the loss of Suarez, but he is, and it isn't working. He's got to let the match come to him.
Henderson, Can, and Markovic played well, the last two in a cameo capacity. I can't wait to see how the Serbian does in a full debut, he's very confident and smooth on the ball, which is entertaining to watch. My man of the match though was Moreno, but not just because of his lung-bursting stunner. He also added 4 tackles, 9 clearances, and a passing percentage of 87.1%, when others failed to post decent passing stats.
This was a must-win for several reasons, mostly for the confidence of the team and supporters. If we can go into a place like White Hart Lane and not play to the best of our ability, but still come away with an impressive 3-0 win, just imagine who we can beat at our best. Fortunately our next 12 fixtures are favorable, hopefully we'll win all of them and be at our confident best when Chelsea come to town November 8th.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Tottenham 0, Liverpool 3: Sometimes moments of madness...
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