Truly painful to watch from start to finish, I really cannot recall us being so completely outclassed like this for an entire game. As great as Tottenham were, Liverpool were truly awful, with no red men coming out of the game with any credit.
We simply did not play or compete. Tottenham bossed us from the start and the odd sight of Martin Skrtel playing right back, let alone against Gareth Bale, was a shocker for everyone, apparently including Skrtel. Kenny must have been scratching his head after the game and trying to recall the train of thought that led to that decision, although to be fair, with our defensive injury problems, you can see where it could have come from, but on that showing, which eventually led to an early bath for two yellow cards, Martin has confirmed that he is a far better centre back than he is a full-back.
The first Tottenham goal came from their left, our right, and around Skrtel, as they worked it around for a ball to be centred, and although we got to it first, the interception fell nicely for Modric in a central position, just outside the penalty box, and he sweetly struck the ball into the top left corner of the net. We were 1-0 down after seven minutes, and our problems were only just starting.
Skrtel and Adam were both given yellows for tackles on Bale who is evidently being well protected by referees these days. Adam’s booking in particular seemed harsh. Then Agger seemed to hurt his side and had to be subbed for our new CB, Coates, an incident which was then followed by a second yellow for Adam for having his foot up and catching Scott Parker, although the challenge was more of an accident than anything else. Adam was very, very unlucky to have been carded twice within the first half hour by a ref who had made a rod for his own back with his early bookings. At least he was consistent. Now if they could just match this consistency with quality...
By half time we were glad not to be further behind, and possibly with more men being shown the tunnel early, as Suarez again showed his petulant side and looked like getting himself sent-off for dissent, having continued to whine after being booked. He may be extremely talented, but we cannot afford prima donnas, especially in a situation such as this.
Whilst Tottenham were dominant, you just felt that there was still a chance that we could sneak something out the game, even with ten men and a new centre back – but any such thoughts were short lived when Martin Skrtel got his second booking early in the second half and then it was a case of how many.
Defoe found space that he might not have otherwise had shortly thereafter and made it 2-0. Another Defoe effort was not held by Pepe, which just gave Adebayor the chance to nick the ball from the keeper and tap-in for 3-0. After that, Tottenham played keep-ball and seemed to settle for 3-0, but at the death, as we lost the ball coming away from the penalty area, Adebayor was found in space on our left and he hammered the ball across Reina’s right side for 4-0.
We deserved this score line as much as Tottenham did.
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