by LFC2007 » Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:34 am
After a few hours of reflection, here are my thoughts on the game:
We completely and utterly bossed the first half, we got the goal, we were positive in our approach, yet we kept our shape and discipline when we weren't in possession. We nulified them totally, primarily through dominating the midfield and well disciplined pressing. Because of this, they found it very difficult to find a forward pass, and as a result had - at best - one half chance in the shape of Modric volley late in the half. We were in firm control, but couldn't find the final ball, or the final shot on a few occasions, which would've enabled us to kill the game (though for the first half, I'd only call these minor criticisms). First half instances: I recall Riera getting in one or two good positions, but having his passes intercepted or rolling short. Gerrard also gave him a bit of stick midway through the half for running into their defenders after he found himself in open space and running toward their area. Not only Riera, but also Dossena, who found himself out wide and in open space on two clear occasions, only to cross straight at their defence. Keane had one or two positive moments where he linked up with Gerrard on the edge of the box, but he fecked the final pass. Gerrard had a couple of shots or chances to shoot which he didn't get hold of. Second half, we continued in the same vein, although this time we actually created the chances which would've enabled us to kill the game. Gerrard's deflected shot hit the post, he then hit the crossbar, Kuyt then missed Arbeloa's flicked on cross in front of goal, and then Alonso missed a bit of a sitter at the far post from a Gerrard f/k. Then Gerrard had a shot curl wide of the post from the edge of the box after good interplay by Riera, Alonso and Arbeloa. A few more nice passages of play followed involving Riera, Keane and Gerrard, but none resulted in chances. This was all up until about 67', then Babel came on for Keane. Spurs began to have a little more possession and won a couple of corners, and from one of these situations, they got a flukey equaliser. The goal lifted the crowd and this unnerved us a bit. Reina missed one cross and then fluffed another which resulted in a good chance for them to score. They recovered a bit of fight and pressed well, playing very compact out of possession and proving difficult to break down. We regained dominance of possession, though, at around 84', but couldn't find a way through. Babel made no contribution whatsoever and Benayoun wasn't much better. Then the sickening blow at the end; a passage of collectively poor defending. Alonso, Arbeloa and Carragher all failed to stop Bentley, Reina saved well, yet Dossena failed to get a block on Bent's cross, and Agger was second to the cross, which led to the goal.
We didn't choose to sit back after the equalier, we went for the three points because we'd dominated for so long, and one point wouldn't have been justice. As it was, we paid an even heavier the price for slacking late on and earlier for failing to convert one of four or five very good chances.