Spurs v Liverpool: In-game and post match debate

Positive display yesterday. Probably the best shift away the players put in under Hodgson, but there still is a lot of room for improvement.

I am disappointed at the result because I thought we were good value for at least a draw, and could have even nicked a win had the ref did his job squarely. Torres and Maxi need to take responsibility, they had 3 fantastic one on one chances and could have put the game to bed at 3-0 before 50 mins.

I thought it was a very even game, both sides looking to attack, we had a good shape and balance and Hodgson's game plan was spot on. We were quite strong defensively, Bale was kept in check but the major liability all day was Lennon skinning Konchesky for pace down the Spurs' right flank.

It was a game of chances. Despite Defoe's penalty miss, Spurs took theirs and we ultimately paid the price for failure to convert. Complete schoolboy error from Konchesky in the 92nd minute, switched off and fell asleep and we paid for his incompetence.

Lucas is my man of the match. Neat, tidy passing. Clean tackling and barely lost the ball. Kept the play simple and smooth.

Again very disappointing not to come out of the game with anything. But it was a vastly superior away performance and we showed resiliance and determination. That was positive for me.

Yup agree on all of that.

Disagree with the comments about us sitting back and inviting pressure on to us, it was end to end, so what was happening was that both teams commited players forward, leaving space for the counter attack.

Even when Ngog went off, Kuyt played close to Torres, and Meireles was able to keep popping up on the edge of the box, and nearly won us the game a few times.

Can't really say anything negative about Roy on that game except maybe his use of subs were poor, and have been throughout his reign and his post match comments were sh*te.

In all honesty, we were probably lucky not to lose by more.  We should have had 3 goals as Maxi should have had a goal when Torres put him through, and Nando should have grabbed the breakaway goal right after the restart.  Also, Meireles was only a whisker away with a left footed belter, but close only counts in horseshoes and sh*t fights (because sh*t splatters!!). 

On the flip side, Spurs easily could have had 5.... We easily could have gone behind early after Lennon roasted Konch on the wing and put in a wonderful cross only for Modric to scuff his effort.  Defoe should have put them in front, but Carra came up with an incredible block.  Bale should have scored one from a volley, but Meireles came up with a goal line clearance.  Had Skrtel not put the ball into the net, Crouch certainly would have.  Defoe missed a penalty (albeit a poorly awarded one).  And Lennon roasted our defense for the game-winner. 

We played well, but we certainly didn't deserve the victory.  I do feel as if we are a bit unlucky not to have taken a point from this as we were adventurous throughout, and were ultimately beaten in stoppage time, but spurs looked the better team for the majority of the game.

A lot of you seemed happy with that performance. Well fair do's to you, because I wasn't. Yet again under Roy, we were a 1 half team. I don't think he's gotten a 90 minutes performance out of the team yet. Tottenham were there for the taking yesterday, we needed that second goal and although we had chances and missed, for the majority of that second half, we were second best.


How Konchesky lasted the full 90 is a mystery, he was a disaster the whole game - if Gentleman Roy should have been able to see that. We had a few options too. Aurelio should have replaced him and I would have brought Jovanovic on for Ngog, moving Maxi into the hole. Jovanovic would have had orders to protect Aurelio, much like Kuyt did on the RHS.

And for those that just think I'm being a negative Nelly, we bossed the centre of midfield yesterday using the much derided Lucas and that (ahem) right midfielder (or so Roy seems to think) Miereles & both distributed the ball really well.

As for some of Roy's tactics, they were amateurish at times, Spurs have some very good passers of the ball and so we let them come into our half before pressuring them? Daft as a brush, because they were then hitting balls over our back line or into the feet of Bale & Lennon whose pace we were vunerable to and it was just a matter of time before it paid off.

Yes we missed chances, so did Spurs, yes we were denied a good penalty shout from Kuyt, but we also got away from some awful defending in our own box, twice Carragher illegally charged Crouch while he was in the air, taking the man out, not even looking at the ball and both for me were stonewall penalties and Skrtel was pulling and pushing at every corner, only a matter of time before he is called on it.

As for the ref, as I've seen him get some unfair stick on some sites, he was OK, a bit of a homer, but then we've had refs like that at Anfield. He called the biggest decision, when Hutton went down, correctly & for me it was Hutton's own momentum, so not a dive. Every one of our back lines bookings were deserved, though Skrtel needs to be fined for his, no need for it, should have kept his trap shut. Miereles was unlucky though, but when you see the refs position, it does look like a tackle from behind & the linesman should have assisted with the Kuyt penalty claim. And yes, a couple of Spurs players should have been booked, but as I said the ref was a little bit of a homer & made far less mistakes than some of the players.

All in all, the best 90 minutes under Roy, but nothing to be happy about & Roy's substitute policy & lack of tactical nous was exposed again.

your last comment about Roy do you think that is inspite of his tactics and it was down to the players performances rather than his tactical awareness.I have a feeling its make it up as you go time at present and the team are making decisions on the pitch whilst Roy just looks puzzled on the line.

Can someone tell me why Carra feels the need to shout at all the foreigners as if he's  forcefully imposing his "Liverpudlian credentials" on every player on the team. He makes out that he wants to win more than the other foreign lads just because he's Liverpool through and through.

Remember when he had that on-field spat with Arbeloa when he screamed at Arbeloa face (leading to a reaction from arbeloa and a bit of hand bags) - this made us look like a bunch of amateurs and gave the opposition a sense that we're not funcitioning as a TEAM.

Carra did exactly the same to Sotis in the Spurs game and gave the Greek bloke a severe bollocking when he was trying to get on the field. He called Sotis an "idiot" for not being ready to come on to replace him. It's not Sotis fault if Roy didn't signal for him to get up from the bench and warm up and strip off to come on, is it? 
Carra seems to think that it's ok to call his team mates "idiots" in front of the opposition - you could see Sotis was embarassed at having been spoken to like that by "Liverpool stalwart" in front of his manager and the whole bench.
 Carra and his irresponsible nasty comment clearly effected Sotis' game, you could tell from the Greek's face that he was surprised and embarassed at the comment.

Why can't Carra behave a little bit like Stevie G and use his Liverpool credentials with a bit of class and go about inspiring his teammates BY EXAMPLE on the field instead of shouting insults to his own teamamtes on the football field like a bloody fool.

Can someone tell me why Carra feels the need to shout at all the foreigners as if he's  forcefully imposing his "Liverpudlian credentials" on every player on the team. He makes out that he wants to win more than the other foreign lads just because he's Liverpool through and through.

Remember when he had that on-field spat with Arbeloa when he screamed at Arbeloa face (leading to a reaction from arbeloa and a bit of hand bags) - this made us look like a bunch of amateurs and gave the opposition a sense that we're not funcitioning as a TEAM.

Carra did exactly the same to Sotis in the Spurs game and gave the Greek bloke a severe bollocking when he was trying to get on the field. He called Sotis an "idiot" for not being ready to come on to replace him. It's not Sotis fault if Roy didn't signal for him to get up from the bench and warm up and strip off to come on, is it? 
Carra seems to think that it's ok to call his team mates "idiots" in front of the opposition - you could see Sotis was embarassed at having been spoken to like that by "Liverpool stalwart" in front of his manager and the whole bench.
 Carra and his irresponsible nasty comment clearly effected Sotis' game, you could tell from the Greek's face that he was surprised and embarassed at the comment.

Why can't Carra behave a little bit like Stevie G and use his Liverpool credentials with a bit of class and go about inspiring his teammates BY EXAMPLE on the field instead of shouting insults to his own teamamtes on the football field like a bloody fool.

Soto is a big grown man, I'm sure he could handle it.

The team needs leaders Carra is one, even if he spills over at times.

Happy with the performance, come F***ing off it we were beaten by a Spurs side that usually lose after a mid week Champions League game, a Spurs side that has been held at home by Wolves. Oh how a lot of your standards have dropped for us.

 I expect Liverpool to win every game and just because we have a clueless F***ing clown is our manager I still expect it. Kennys son Paul comments yesterday were F***ing spot on.

Some people on here are just accepting mediocre, Spurs missed a penalty had 2 cleared off the line and Lennon missed a sitter at the end. The way people are going on you'd think we won 4 or 5 nil.

Soto is a big grown man, I'm sure he could handle it.

Like Arbeloa handled it? I'm sure his on field spat with Carra was one of the motivating factors which made him leave us and go to Real madrid where he's been playing brilliantly. We could do with a player like Arbeloa right now but players like carra causing a bad atmosphere by arguing with the foreign lads ON THE FIELD is not making players feel comfortable playing for the team. Carra insults players in front of the oppositionduring a match,  imagine what he's like in training? This sort of "leader" isn't respected by teamates. No-one likes to be insulted. A player like Stevie G is respected because he leads by example and doesn't show the opposition any kind of disunity by disrespecting one of his own players.

The team needs leaders Carra is one, even if he spills over at times.

Calling your teamate an "idiot" in front of the whole opposition and your own manager and bench isn't "leadership", it's stupidity. It's self-defeating because it encourages the opposition into thinking that there's disharmony in our team and effects the confidence of our own players.
Everytime Carra shouted abuse at a foreign lad for making a defensive error he ended up scoring an goal so he should be careful.

Carra is not a motivator he criticises rather than motivates not the same as being a good captain.Stevie Captains by leading from the front not shouting and balling. I honestly believe with another manager we would have beaten Spurs and probably have at least 6 or 7 points more than we have got at the moment.

The 1 positive from the game was that we created chances...i mean i havent seen our attackers get any 1 on 1 chances over the past 5 away games and to see 3 in one match was encouraging.
The flipside was off course that not on chance was taken.
Secondly, our play was more fluent than in other away matches, however the 2nd half saw our familiar defensive shape with 9 players behind the ball at all times...even an amateur could have told you that Spurs would eventually score given there attacking talent on the field. I think Roy looked lost again especially after they equalised, he should have seen the game was slipping away. The worst thing was looking at the screen after we went 2-1 down to see Roy admit defeat, slumped in his chair... he could have given one of the fringe players a chance to go and try something FFS!

While i cant blame Roy for the defeat, i can certainly say that his tactical awareness and body language showed that he is not the man to take us forward.
Anyways on to the next one!

Happy with the performance, come f**king off it we were beaten by a Spurs side that usually lose after a mid week Champions League game, a Spurs side that has been held at home by Wolves. Oh how a lot of your standards have dropped for us.

 I expect Liverpool to win every game and just because we have a clueless f**king clown is our manager I still expect it. Kennys son Paul comments yesterday were f**king spot on.

Some people on here are just accepting mediocre, Spurs missed a penalty had 2 cleared off the line and Lennon missed a sitter at the end. The way people are going on you'd think we won 4 or 5 nil.

So are you saying you were unhappy with the performance then Corbally? you are of course entitled to your opinion, but alot of posters are happy and apart from the final outcome a marked improvement from recent months, on another day we could have been three up by the break, and that was purely down to bad finishing, both teams played well in a open game with a sh*t ref who undoubtedly gave the rub of the green to the home side,i will agree that Roy's tactical nous is suspect and his subs are strange to say the least, but be honest, did you expect us to play our normal negative way ? because i did, so credit to Roy for being positive for a change, and it almost worked, we were unlucky IMO, losing Carra was pivotal and subsequently Sotis mis-timed his jump, sleeping beauty Konch got raped by Lennon, what goes around comes around and we will exact revenge come May, and it could even prove to be a CL decider, you never know, how sweet will that be?

We lost against Spurs not Real or Barc the performance was okay so what we are Liverpool not F***ing Blackpool, they way people are going on you'd think we won come next Monday we could be 15th john henry please sack the fool before he destroys us because already a lot of fans expectations have dropped

I, as the majority of people did, predicted a loss here, and have to say I wasn't really that suprised by the result at the end of the day. However I have to say I expected us to get mullered, not lose 2-1 in the dying minutes and miss two other glories chances that would of taken us 3-0 up and out of sight.

Not getting too excited as the performance was still only "decent" and nothing special, but considering it was away at Spurs (Somewere we havent won in 5 games) I guess we can take something from it as opposed to the shambles at Stoke and Wigan.

That being said, Roy continually infuriates me with his post and pre match defeatist attitude, I cant bear to watch the man. He has no idea about this football club and the fans, thats the reason I want him gone. That being said Im not going to pin this defeat to much on him. Its more his attitude than the performances at the moment that are pissing me off.

The more you read the posts on this and other forums you begin to wonder if NESV have the slightest idea of what is happening to the club.
Its gone beyond him being a poor Manager now its created a negatvivty in the club that we all hoped would go when H+G left.They must be delighted at their appointment causing us so much pain.

Hey, Real Madrid destroyed by Barca 0-5 !
At least I'm glad to see the F***ing face of Mourinho it really made me forget about Roy and our new owner for a few minutes, ha ha...

On the topic, imo I agree with many posts above that performance of the first half is not too bad but I think Roy decision to pair Ngog upfront with Torres is useless. In the second half the biggest mistake is Roy did not replace Konchesky with Aurelio, removing the attacker (Ngog) and keep the left back who play poorly and already booked to stop the like of Lennon is never help us.

Spurs looked like they ran out of luck. How we lost to a luckless side, I cannot explain, except to point a finger at some Fulham people at our club.

I keep on seeing that bruiser od a winger Lennon out muscle Konshesky to score their winner. FFS he didnt even put a foot in he turned his back on him.

Things don't get much better do they , just heard Carra needs an op and will be out for 3 months !!

Here is my two pennies' worth about the game. As much as I am not a fan of Roy and I am sure he is NOT the man - I think that was one of the better matches under his reign. I think we were offensive, created chances and the match was nice to watch at least. We were unlucky not to get at least a draw, also unlucky that the ref took a lot of decision in their favor. On the negative side - Maxi and Torrest were poor in front of goal, Konchesky was not good enough as usual. On of the positives side - Meireles owned the midfield. Easily MOM for me.

A lot of you seemed happy with that performance. Well fair do's to you, because I wasn't. Yet again under Roy, we were a 1 half team. I don't think he's gotten a 90 minutes performance out of the team yet.

This is the whole point I was trying to make.

Yes, it was probably the best of our sh*t 8 away games so far.

A lot of people saying that this was one of Roy's better games.  That just shows how low he has already brought down some fans expectations. 

On the Liverpool-ometer this performance was a 4 or 5.

On the Roy-ometer this was probably a 9.

I've kept away from the forum for a few days because Roy is driving me nuts, We are Liverpool we have loftier ambitions than settling for draws, and the substitution of N'Gog showed clearly what Roy was aiming for, ok it was a spirited first half performance but lets not forget we could quite easily have been behind at half time as Tottenham had their chances too.

Any one saying I'm not blaming Roy for that defeat really needs to look at the tactics in the match, who set the team up to defend a slender 1-0 lead for 45 minutes ?, who took off a forward and replaced him with a left back to play in midfield ? That was Roy, so he has to take the responsibility for the defeat.

I am starting to say "if" he gets sacked he will be able to use the injured players you know Agger was our best CB but was unavailable to us. How can any Liverpool supporter ever say he was happy getting beat or would have been happy with a draw how standards have fallen. Will someone remind me we did we beat both of the teams in last nights Classico only recently inour History.FFS.

I've kept away from the forum for a few days because Roy is driving me nuts, We are Liverpool we have loftier ambitions than settling for draws, and the substitution of N'Gog showed clearly what Roy was aiming for, ok it was a spirited first half performance but lets not forget we could quite easily have been behind at half time as Tottenham had their chances too.

Even worse, he accepted defeat! At 2-1 with 4 mins to go he sat slumped in his chair muttering rather than barking instructions - then when Pepe wanted to come up for the free-kick in the dying seconds he told him to go back