Other Side of the Coin
Spurs 1 – 2 Liverpool
Let’s be 100% clear: we did not deserve to win this one.
It’s nice to be on this side of the equation every so often, I suppose. However, the reason we’re usually on the other side of it is that Liverpool is typically the better team, and thus ends up being the one that suffers a misfortune.
Not today.
The spurs were better. Not just in the second half, when it seemed like it was just a matter of time and pure, blind luck that they didn’t steamroll the Reds. They were also more dangerous in the first half, even if the game was on a more-or-less equal footing. But Liverpool has that middle-eastern fella who is so often a game-changer, and two well-composed strikes from him finished the home side off.
Klopp as much as admitted the fragility of his side when he replaced Nunez with Gomez, and then Salah with Ox. I’m sure he breathed just as big a sigh of relief as we all did, watching the game on TV when the whistle went off.
Still, it’s the first away victory of the Reds this season in the premier league, and I am going to hope, yet again, that this signals the shift and that Liverpool will roar back into form after the world cup. Yes, there is a potentially tricky game against the apparently soon-to-be managerless Saints still to come before the break, but if the team can get through that one safely, it might give everyone a moment to reset.
It is sobering that Alisson saved at least two more seemingly sure goals, and he’s the only reason Liverpool isn’t looking at the table from well inside the bottom half. As has been the case for much of the season so far, Van Dijk is the shaky link in defense, not Trent. Robbo was excellent as always, and my man-of-the-match goes not to Salah, but to Konate, who singlehandedly took the sting out of many Spurs attacks. The pressure he was put under was intense, but for the most part, he handled it well.
All this tells you is that this was a worrying performance. In the last 20 minutes of the game Liverpool couldn’t even get out of its own half, and for a team normally this creative, fast, and lethal, that’s not normal. It is a strange time when Liverpool finally notches an away win in the league, against some of the best opposition the league currently has to offer, and I don’t feel like celebrating. Best way to summarize it is I’m happy with the three points.
I’m even happier we have a few weeks to rethink.
