Liverpool shine on as misery for Andre Villas-Boas continues
A dejected Andre Villas-Boas (R) looks on at the final whistle
Built up as a match for Champions League contenders, Liverpool outshone and outplayed their opponents by a mile or in this case a few miles. On a evening where nothing went right for Tottenham Hotspur (they lost Sandro half an hour into the game, Paulinho got sent off and to make matters worse, Liverpool pumped in 5 past them). Sadly, Andre Villas-Boas will again be in the spotlight and his tactics rightfully questioned.
Liverpool was without their talismanic captain Steven Gerrard and other important players such as Sturridge and Enrique. The captain of the day, Luis Suarez, though led from the front and earned further plaudits and to establish his credentials as one of the best in the world with two goals and for good measure an assist as well.
The midfield trio of Lucas, Henderson and Allen were outstanding as they sabotaged Spurs midfield play and heckled and hassled the Spurs players throughout. After the summer sale of Gareth Bale and an influx of impressive players into the Spurs squad much was expected this season, but Villas-Boas is running out of time especially on the back two heavy defeats against the top four teams. Questions will be again raised on the transfer policy which has still not yielded any results.
The first few minutes seemed more like a boxing bout with the teams testing each other out, rather than throwing any punches. Other than the early Mignolet scare, both the teams took a more timid approach. The game suddenly burst into life though as Suarez scored in the 18th minute.
The goal illustrated the static approach of the Spurs players as Suarez from trying to create the goal ended up making the yards to finish it himself, as the Spurs player were caught ball watching. A lovely through ball for Henderson, which Capoue cut out at full stretch only for Henderson to recover and lay it in the path off the onrushing Suarez who showed some nifty footwork to give Liverpool the lead.
A combination of the crossbar and Lloris is what was keeping Liverpool from scoring but there was nothing that could be done for the second goal. A brilliant diagonal ball from Sterling to pick out Coutinho whose touch was exquisite which played in Henderson, whose initial shot was saved brilliantly by Lloris and then another brilliant save against the followed up Suarez shot.
Unfortunately, he was only able to parry Suarez’s shot, but Henderson was on hand to sweetly volley home in the bottom corner and Liverpool as easy as knife through hot butter were two-nil up.
Villas-Boas seen enough of this and the second half saw some Spurs coming out with a determination to get back into the game. But no sooner had the game commenced Sakho almost made it three nil.
As the rains increased, so did the frustrations of the Spurs players and as a result soon enough Paulinho was sent off for a kung-fu style tackle on Suarez which earned him a rightful red card.
Spurs could only look to do damage control as Liverpool was running as rampant as the rain itself. The tempo though slowed down comparatively but Liverpool was being more incisive and were cutting Spurs to pieces.
After missing out on numerous chances, the young left back for Liverpool, John Flanagan though decided against any half measures as he took it upon himself to half volley a sweet finish off the crossbar to finish off the game.
Kenny Dalglish, another Liverpool legend, among the watching faithful allowed himself a smile as well. Liverpool still didn’t let up till the end and had enough time to create another chance for Suarez who dinked one over Lloris to continue his scoring spree and to let Sterling get on the score sheet as well.
As the rains increased, so did the booing and the incessant pressure seems to be showing on AVB, whether he will survive another such heavy defeat is now the question.