Liverpool v Tottenham

[RSS61]

     I was surprised that AVB started Livermore and not Holtby, he could have played RM in place of Lennon, leaving Dembele in CM. Thats at least the last 3 or 4 games that Holtby has been on the bench isn't it?? Any thoughts?


 

Probably because Villas-Boas wanted to use a more defensive pairing in midfield. Holtby is good at going forward, but offers little defensively. Maybe Villas-Boas thought that Perker alone would be too exposed to the likes of Coutinho. The other reason could be that he left Holtby on the bench to have an attack-minded substitute when needed.

I actually thought AVB got his selection right, and Livermore was having a reasonable game. Walker had a decent game, apart from the brain freeze moment, though Lloris might have done better with the clearance.
Defoe I dont think he did one good thing all day, yet again. We really lack quality up front. Sigurdsson missed 2 glorious chances, oh to have someone like Suarez up front. BAE I think was not at the races, and ended up making Downing look good, which he clearly isn't.
Dembele and Verthonghen, different class. Thats the positive, we generally played OK apart from the misses and bad goals we gave away. At 2-1 up we were all over them and should have run out comfortable winners.

[RiffHard]

All in all I would say that as it was our first loss in 12 games I am not too disheartened. We still have everything to fight for.

[Glenn R]

I also think AVB got the system right. We would have won if it wasn't for two terrible mistakes. The back pass and the penalty.

[ugs]

     I was surprised that AVB started Livermore and not Holtby, he could have played RM in place of Lennon, leaving Dembele in CM. Thats at least the last 3 or 4 games that Holtby has been on the bench isn't it?? Any thoughts?


 

Probably because Villas-Boas wanted to use a more defensive pairing in midfield. Holtby is good at going forward, but offers little defensively. Maybe Villas-Boas thought that Perker alone would be too exposed to the likes of Coutinho. The other reason could be that he left Holtby on the bench to have an attack-minded substitute when needed.

I actually thought AVB got his selection right, and Livermore was having a reasonable game. Walker had a decent game, apart from the brain freeze moment, though Lloris might have done better with the clearance.
Defoe I dont think he did one good thing all day, yet again. We really lack quality up front. Sigurdsson missed 2 glorious chances, oh to have someone like Suarez up front. BAE I think was not at the races, and ended up making Downing look good, which he clearly isn't.
Dembele and Verthonghen, different class. Thats the positive, we generally played OK apart from the misses and bad goals we gave away. At 2-1 up we were all over them and should have run out comfortable winners.

To be fair to AVB we looked fairly solid and the first goal by Suarez was good football and a clinical finish, after that we started bossing large parts of the game and looked dangerous most of the time. Look at the stats more Shots, Corners and Possesion but we lost 3-2, now this may surprise a few on this forum but I'm going to defend AVB here I felt he got his tactics spot on !! We shot ourselves in the foot twice with two schoolboy errors nothing that AVB could do about that the players must take full responsibilty for their errors and I also blame Mr Levy because once again we created plenty of chances and opportunities but we do not possess a top quality forward to capitalise on them... not backing your manager in the January window is coming back to bite us !!!
 
 

[Paul Finch]

   I agree with everything you posted UGS, I was just surprised that AVB started Livermore, I am not criticising Livermores performance, I thought he had a reasonable game.
     I am severely pissed off that we gave away the opportunity to put some extra daylight between us, Chelski and the Arse, instead we are now going to be looking over our shoulder, hoping that they drop some points, I think, a little Deja vu, would you not agree.


 

[RiffHard]

a little Deja vu, would you not agree.

It was only one game and our first loss in 12 games. It happens, teams lose and good every player makes mistakes. That's football. We'll get over this result with a win against Fulham! 

[spursjoolz]

Not too worried at this point, as you point out this our first defeat in the last 12 and we we could have won it, had Walker not acted like an idiot (not the first time and here goes his England selection!). Well,  we should have got a point at least.

It has to be a win v Fulham and the Arse to draw or preferably lose at Swansea. I cannot see Liverpool maintaining this form for the remaining 9 games, they will drop points and so will the Arse and Chelsea.

Chins up!

[Glenn R]

Not too worried at this point, as you point out this our first defeat in the last 12 and we we could have won it, had Walker not acted like an idiot (not the first time and here goes his England selection!). Well,  we should have got a point at least.

It has to be a win v Fulham and the Arse to draw or preferably lose at Swansea. I cannot see Liverpool maintaining this form for the remaining 9 games, they will drop points and so will the Arse and Chelsea.

Chins up!

We got defeated by our own hands, not Liverpools. A bad back pass and a trip in the penalty box. Overall Spurs were a better side.