Liverpool - match ratings

[LCLC]

Rose gave away a completely unnecessary penalty, and defended poorly (albeit in companionship with Bentaleb and Chadli) for the winner.

Bentaleb had a shocker, I thought. Gifted Liverpool a couple of opportunities in the first half, sloppy passing in general, was never in the game and see above.

Mason guilty of the same as Bentaleb in the first half, but got better in the second.

Dembele was the one player who managed to keep hold of the ball and establish plays for us in their half. Great touches, good dribbling, strong in possession. Scored a goal too.

wooah - how can u say Rose was responsible for their winner when he stood his man up and two men failed to track a runner.

Also for the pen that ball should never have reached Sturridgr but our general play was poor.

Rose was brick tonight along with a few others but I don't actually think he struggled too much against Ibe - he was left one on one time after time and generally won the battle. Problem was he was caught out badly a few times

 

[King of Norway]

wooah - how can u say Rose was responsible for their winner when he stood his man up and two men failed to track a runner.

Also for the pen that ball should never have reached Sturridgr but our general play was poor.

Rose was crud tonight along with a few others but I don't actually think he struggled too much against Ibe - he was left one on one time after time and generally won the battle. Problem was he was caught out badly a few times

I thought what happened at the goal was that Rose and Bentaleb were square on their man, and on a line, if that makes sense, with a gap between them. One of them should have got close to the Liverpool-player, positioned his body sideways, guiding the player towards the second Spurs-player slightly behind him. They way they defended it, they made it easy to slip a pass through them. In addition to that, Chadli was lazy and didn't track the runner. Poor defending alround.

 

[Jordinho]

I thought what happened at the goal was that Rose and Bentaleb were square on their man, and on a line, if that makes sense, with a gap between them. One of them should have got close to the Liverpool-player, positioned his body sideways, guiding the player towards the second Spurs-player slightly behind him. They way they defended it, they made it easy to slip a pass through them. In addition to that, Chadli was lazy and didn't track the runner. Poor defending alround.

If Bentaleb had stayed with Lallana instead of focusing on Rose's man everything would have been fine.

 

[King of Norway]

If Bentaleb had stayed with Lallana instead of focusing on Rose's man everything would have been fine.

Well, it couldn't have ended any worse than it did, at least. Ibe had the beating of Rose all game long, though, so he needed some help too. However, perhaps in that case it would have been better to let Rose deal with him on his own and focus on protecting the more threatening space behind him. I think there were several ways to avoid the situation. Chadli tracking back would also have solved it. On tv you could see what was going to happen long before it did, but our players at pitch-level clearly didn't.

 

[Spur of the moment]

A match riddled with mistakes from Tottenham who put up a decent fight throughout but having given their all against Arsenal and then some they were never going to be able to reproduce such a high-octane performance three days later in the cauldron that is Anfield

Lloris 6 - some excellent saves but should have done better for Markovic's goal. Seemed to have it covered but maybe slipped slightly on his way down attempting the save.

Walker 5 - a very mixed bag, some very sloppy passing and positional play, getting caught upfield or drifting inside on occasion when Liverpool attacked. Relied too much on his pace to recover as is his wont but it didn't always come-off
Dier 5 - another mixed bag, looked decidedly shaky at times, a couple of suicide passes and risky tackles but also managed the some decent rescue acts
Verts 6 - also very shaky at times, including some sloppy defending in the build-up to Markovic's goal, but also produced a couple of excellent forward forays
Rose 4 - was given a very torrid time by the lively Ibe and conceded a pen with that mistimed tackle on the inevitably theatrical Sturridge inside the box

Mason 5 - well below the level of Saturday's power performance, with some atrocious passing especially first half intermixed with the occasional glorious ball over the top into danger areas
Bentaleb 6 - like practically every Spurs player on the night came up with a couple of suicide passes but otherwise looked quality in the middle of the park
Dembele 8 - head and shoulders above every other Spurs player, unshakeable in possession and, his critics please note, our non-stop creative dynamo going forward. Mystifyingly subbed on 85.

Lamela 6 - yet another mixed bag with some good pressing and excellent forward play including an assist for Kane's goal, interspersed with occasions when he mysteriously and perversely chose the wrong option at critical moments (eg when Mason was well-placed inside the box) plus the all-too-typical attempt to take-on one too many
Eriksen 6 - we've seen some poor performances from the Dane of late but this was among his worst. YET, such is his innate quality he was unlucky not to score from a fk that produced one of several outstanding saves from Mignolet and featured well in several promising attacks including the build-up to Kane's goal

Kane 7 - a well-taken goal, an excellent assist and that chase-back to retrieve possession from Sturridge on the edge of our own box having lost it to him on the edge of theirs typified his never-say-die spirit

Subs

Paulinho 5 - typically soft performance
Chadli 5
Soldado n/a

Manager

Pochettino 5

Understandable that he stuck by the team that started against Arsenal, but it was clear very early on that several, especially midfield, players were looking very ragged after that intense battle. So WHY WHY WHY was Stambouli not on the bench (is he injured?), he would have been the perfect replacement for the weary Mason; WHY did he not bring Chadli on around the 65th minute for the by then clearly-frazzled Lamela and WHAT ON EARTH possessed him to take off our brightest spark in Dembele after 85 for the predictably inept Soldado. Okay so Dembele had been booked but it didn't look like he was about to do anything silly with just five minutes of normal time remaining.

 

[metalgear]

7 for the rest of the guys except 5 these:

Rose - mistake for the penalty
Bentaleb - could have cost us another 2 goals in the first half
Eriksen - ineffective until the free kick.

Poch - wee obviously can't keep up with the high pressing game so changes needed quickly by the 60th min. also need a plan B for a more economical system of play to ease the guys into the game and shake off the lethargy.

Special highlights to Lamela and Dembele for keeping us dangerous and providing bite for much of the game, and Kane - what consistensy!

 

[glasgowspur]

7.5 for the the whole team. They all made mistakes and liverpoo scored from them, but up until about the 88th minute when dowd decided he was just going to let the clock run out we looked like we could Nick a deserved point. More importantly the players thought they could as well.

Out tempo was off, we hurried into sloppy passing instead of our usual quick and precise.
A bit of experience for the youngsters in mid that will do them good long term.

 

[Kandi1977]

Rose was put in impossible situations time and time again! There was one moment in the match 3 'pool players were playing triangle around him, and Rose, quite rightly so, put his arms up and screamed "help me out here ffs"!!!

 

[wiziwig]

Lloris - 7

Walker - 7
Dier - 7
Vertonghen - 6
Rose - 5

Bentaleb - 6
Mason - 6

Lamela - 8
Dembele - 8
Eriksen - 6
Kane - 8

Paulinho - 5
Chadli - 5

 

[wiziwig]

Rose was put in impossible situations time and time again! There was one moment in the match 3 'pool players were playing triangle around him, and Rose, quite rightly so, put his arms up and screamed "help me out here ffs"!!!

Rather than bringing on Chadli, maybe we could've put Davies on to help him. I were disappointed that no attempt to solve the problem were made by Poch , well it didn't seem so.

 

[sc25]

Lloris - 6 - The guy bails us out often enough, but that first goal was poor by his standards. Good saves at other times though.

Walker - 7 - Did well and his side of the pitch looked locked up most of the game.
Dier - 7 - Not sure I can give MOTM to a defender when we concede 3 goals, but he was good on the ball and coped well with Sturridge. He was dominant in the air and got in a few blocks.
Vertonghen - 6 - Assured but again, we conceded 3 goals so can't mark that highly.
Rose - 4 - Might seem harsh to some, but he was very poor. He never coped with Ibe and Liverpool looked to exploit that often. His positioning was hap hazard and he never took control of situations. One moment stood out in particular when Markovic cut right inside with neither he nor Mason taking responsibilty and both deciding to track the overlap allowing Markovic to waltz towards the area and have a crack on goal. Some good forward runs, but some very confusing ones too. Gave away the penalty as well.

Bentaleb - 5 - Looked off the pace for much of the night and some very sloppy passing early on which nearly cost us.
Mason - 4 - His passing was very good tonight, but he didn't cope well with their attack and takes a lot of the blame along with Rose for how weak the left hand side of our pitch looked.

Lamela - 7 - Great assist and almost had a goal. Worked very hard defensively and pressed right up until the last minute.
Dembele - 6 - Started really well, but faded and was guilty of slowing play down.
Eriksen - 6 - Not much came off for him tonight. Showed good variance to his play and held the width but did look tired and it wasn't suprising he got subbed. Didn't look happy about it mind.



Kane - 7 - Got a goal and an assist, but other than that had a fairly anonymous night. Was one who looked tired.

Subs:
Paulinho - 6 - Pussied out of the first 50/50 to come his way, but did shore things up thereafter.
Chadli - 5 - Didn't look up for it, couldn't get into the game and was partly responsible for their winner.
Soldado - n/a

Poch - 6 - Think tonight we needed some rotation of personel, with the midfield looking tired and stretched.

Tell me something, ok? I ask gingerly, cos last couple times I asked you something you did a runner. If Davies had put in a similar performance, would you have written a paragraph/essay about him? Be as honest as you can.

Appreciate ypur ratings. But you know, he could have played Davies, and he might never have crossed the half way line, and some would have said, 'Well, his side kinda looked locked up, so he's a 7 for me'.

BTW, before I'm able to effectively - and objectively - compare each, I want Davies, away at top 4/5 teams consistently, with Ericksen playing in front of him, or maybe Lamela. Selected by Poch, of course.

(Which springs to mind a thought or two about Lamela vs. Ibe, but I won't touch that with a barge pole in this place.)

 

[thfcsteff]

I would rate everyone in the 6s and 7s...I felt we were every bit their equal (especially given the fact we were the AWAY side) and got caught by a moment of tiredness. The weirdest thing about that goal is that Chadli was really the man who could've helped as much as anyone (the Llananananana tracking point was noted and yes, I get that too) but I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that perhaps Chadli is still grieving and not 100% mentally, thus we might have to be patient there. The slagging of Rose is unreasonable IMO. Given how poor he was last season, his improvements have been immense, and again, he was a powerful and very strong outlet for us the whole match. Could he have done a little better near the end? Maybe. But let's face it, Hugo could've done better with their first, but you'd allow him that on balance of his generally excellent excellent form. I think we should give Rose the benefit here. I still think we were unlucky not to get at least a point.

 

[Cochise]

Tell me something, ok? I ask gingerly, cos last couple times I asked you something you did a runner. If Davies had put in a similar performance, would you have written a paragraph/essay about him? Be as honest as you can.

Appreciate ypur ratings. But you know, he could have played Davies, and he might never have crossed the half way line, and some would have said, 'Well, his side kinda looked locked up, so he's a 7 for me'.

BTW, before I'm able to effectively - and objectively - compare each, I want Davies, away at top 4/5 teams consistently, with Ericksen playing in front of him, or maybe Lamela. Selected by Poch, of course.

(Which springs to mind a thought or two about Lamela vs. Ibe, but I won't touch that with a barge pole in this place.)

Did I do a runner? No idea, can't remember the question.

I'll be honest up until the Xmas run in, Davies was my preferred option, but since Rose came back in I have changed that opinion. I have said when both have played poorly and I honestly have been happy with Rose's performances this last month where he has looked a lot better than before his injury, putting in good offensive and defensive displays both helping the team keep and take points.

Against Liverpool we were cut open on our left a lot, because of Ibe and Markovic. Rose was left exposed by their quick switches, but the example above was one where I think he should've taken control of the situation but didn't and we nearly paid the price. I would've had no problem saying the same about Davies had he been our LB. The forward runs part is something about his game which I don't get. There are times when he bombs into an already crowded box, presumably looking for a pass that will never be pulled off when staying conservative is the better option.

 

[metalgear]

rodgers 1- 0 poch

rodgers knew that eriksen wouldn't be helping out much so chose to overload on rose with ibe and markovich.

having said that ibe and markovich are outstanding players - confident and able to run at players with the ball - so rodgers used them well.

not buying into the grieving backstory, but chadli just came on seconds ago...probably not in tune with the proceedings when it happened (really fast too!).