Pr
 
 
 
 
OPPONENTS Liverpool 
                           
COMPETITION Premier League 
DATE Saturday 11th February 2017
VENUE Anfield
Liverpool  SQUAD 1.  Loris KARIUS
2.  Nathaniel CLYNE
5.  Georginio WIJNALDUM
7.  James MILNER
10.  Phillipe COUTINHO
11.  Roberto FIRMINO
12.  Joe GOMEZ
13.  Alex MANNIGER
14.  Jordan HENDERSON
15.  Daniel STURRIDGE
16.  Marko GRUJIC
17.  Ragnar KLAVAN
18.  Alberto MORENO
19.  Sadio MANE
 
20.  Adam LALLANA
21.  LUCAS Leiva
22.  Simon MINGOLET
23.  Emre CAN
27.  Divock ORIGI
28.  Danny INGS
32.  Joel MATIP
35.  Kevin STEWART
53.  Ovie EJARIA
54.  Sheyi OJO
56.  Connor RANDALL
58.  Ben WOODBURN
66.  Trent ALEXANDER-ARNOLD

 
PREVIEW So, Liverpool haven't won in the Premier League since before New Year.  So, this will be a pushover then. 

Well, not quite, as Liverpool seem to have a bee in their bonnet about Spurs, thinking they should be above us, but they will raise their game like most teams who face us these days.  It is a tribute to what Pochettino has done with the club and how we are now regarded in English football.  Liverpool are desperate for a result and with a couple of our key players unavailable, they will be looking to make the most of that at their place. 

Their is a good deal of talent in the Liverpool squad, but many have been under-performing for a while and more recently, the loss of Sadio mane to the African Cup of Nations seemed to hit the side badly, indicating that they are heavily reliant on the Sengal man's pace.   He will be a threat, but Firmino and Origi have not been getting a great deal of supply of late and it will be down to Tottenham to make sure that doesn't improve.

With both teams likely to be playing a high pressing game, time and space will be at a premium.  Henderson, Lallana and Wijnaldum will be busy buzzing around, so quick movement of the ball can cut them out of a game and if Son is included, getting him to run at Milner - a converted winger to full back, could entice a rash tackle out of him, as has been the case in the past.  Son is adept at the quick turn, which Milner is not.

What Tottenham have to avoid doing is giving away cheap free-kicks around the last third.  Countinho can score from open play or dead balls, while if the likes of Klavan and Lovren are fit, will give them a height advantage in the box and we don't defend set pieces too well.  If their central defensive pairing is not fit, it may see Lucas drafted in at centre-back, which Spurs should be able to capitalise on.  He is not a defender and does not have the height to win aerial challenges without fouling, so Spurs should make the most of it.

With Alli, Son, Eriksen and Kane playing really well at the moment, they should be able to trouble the Liverpool back line, but last season we didn't really test them at all and with the extra experience in the Tottenham side, I am hoping that we will bring back something from the North-West, but the Reds will be up for it and I can see it ending all square.
 

PREDICTION Liverpool    1       Tottenham Hotspur    1
 
LAST SEASON'S MEETING For a look back at the match report, click here.
RESULTS HISTORY Click here for results, match reports and facts on meetings with Liverpool
Liverpool TEAM NEWS :
Adam Lallana (Achilles) and Dejan Lovren (knee) are doubtful for the Spurs game, while Ragnar Klavan (bacterial infection) is also struggling to be fit.  Danny Ings' knee injury counts him out of selection.
 
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR TEAM NEWS :
Danny Rose (knee),  Erik Lamela (hip) and Jan Vertonghen (ankle) are out of the reckoning for the trip to Anfield.  Spurs hope that Kieran Trippier is available after taking a knock on his hip in the FA Cup tie against Wycombe Wanderers.
 
COVERAGE :

TV
BT Sport - (live coverage)
Sky Sports 1 -  Game of the Day -  Saturday 20.00
Match of the Day  (BBC 1) - Saturday 22.30 (highlights)   [repeated at 07:30 Sunday]  Also available online.
Goals on Sunday (Sky Sports 1) - Sunday 10.30 (repeated at 21.00)
Match of the Day 2  (BBC 1) - Sunday 22.00 (highlights)  Also available online.

For coverage in all parts of the world, check here and here.

Radio :  
BBC LONDON 94.9FM (London area only), Digital Radio (London area only) &  Sky Channel 0152  (live coverage)
Commentary may be found on
>   BBC Radio Five Live (live coverage)  606/939 MW
TalkSport (DAB or 1089 MW)
Absolute Radio  (1215 AM/MW)

If available on BBC radio, it can supposedly be heard in these countries on these stations ...
Australia (Melbourne)
SEN  -  116 AM  Live Transmissions: TWI, Saturday. 12.45 & 15.00 matches
Australia (Sydney) 
Radio 2  -  1611AM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 12.45 Match
Singapore
Media Corp Radio  -  93.8 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
South Africa 
SABC (Radio 2000)  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
Uganda  Radio 1 (English) 90.0 FM, Radio 2 (Lugandan) 87.9 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
North America (USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean) 
Sirius Satellite Radio  Live transmission: Saturday - 12.45, 15.00 (TWI) & 17.15 (BBC) Sunday - 14.00 & 16.05 (BBC) Mon, Tue, Wed - Various times (BBC)

Internet :
www.spurs.co.uk   Live webcast  - subscribers only
BBC London -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/10/12/live_commentaries_feature.shtml click on link to "Listen to Tottenham Hotspur live commentary" on top right hand menu.

 
Li
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Liverpool  2 (2)  
                                                                     

Premier League
Saturday 11th February 2017
Anfield
Tottenham Hotspur  0 (0)

Kick off 17:30
 
 
Goal-scorers  
Mane 16m
Mane 18m
None
 
Cards  
    
Henderson (foul on Alli) 53
Matip (foul on Eriksen) 56
Milner (foul on Kane) 68

 

    
 

    
Son (foul on Firmino) 27
Kane (foul on Clyne) 67
Winks (no foul on Coutinho) 71
Dier (foul on Firmino) 78
Alderweireld (foul on Firmino) 84

    
 

 
 
Crowd :   53,159 Weather :  Chilly, damp in the air
Referee :  Anthony Taylor (Manchester) Assistant Referees :  Mr. A. Nunn; Mr. S.Child
Fourth Official :  Mike Jones  
Liverpool kicked off and played towards the Anfield Road stand in the first half.
Game time : -  90 + 7 minutes.
 
 
 
Liverpool : kit Tottenham Hotspur : kit
22  Simon MIGNOLET

  2  Nathaniel CLYNE
21  LUCAS Leiva  (17  Ragnar KLAVAN  82)
32  Joel MATIP     
  7  James MILNER     

20  Adam LALLANA
14  Jordan HENDERSON  (c)     
  5
  Georginio WIJNALDUM

19  Sadio MANE      (66  Trent ALEXANDER-ARNOLD 90+2)
11  Roberto FIRMINO
10  Phillipe COUTINHO  (23  Emre CAN  77)

Unused subs: 
  1  Loris KARIUS
18  Alberto MORENO
15  Daniel STURRIDGE
27  Divock ORIGI
 

    1  Hugo LLORIS  (c)

  2  Kyle WALKER
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD     
15  Eric DIER     
33  Ben DAVIES

12  Victor WANYAMA
19  Mousa DEMBELE  (17  Moussa SISSOKO  77)

23  Christian ERIKSEN  (29  Harry WINKS  68     )
20  DELE Alli
  7  Heung-Min SON       (  9  Vincent JANSSEN  82)

10  Harry KANE     

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM
16 
Kieran TRIPPIER
14  Georges-Kevin NKOUDOU
27  Kevin WIMMER
 

 
Manager :  Jurgen Klopp Manager :  Mauricio Pochettino
Sponsor :   Standard Chartered Shirt sponsor :  AIA
Kit Supplier :  New Balance Kit Supplier :   Under Armour
Match report

Two goals in two minutes settled this match in the middle of the first half, but Tottenham were lucky to get away so lightly and put in one of their poorest performances of the season to lose to Liverpool at Anfield.

Pochettino left the team the same as last week, with Rose and Vertonghen still out, while Liverpool's one change was Mane in for Can.  It was quite a significant move.

Liverpool had early possession and Wanyama's loose pass inside the Liverpool half almost sent Mane away, but Victor got back to stop any threat. Spurs were pinned back into their own last third for the first ten minutes, but Tottenham had no out ball, with clearances that kept coming back. However in the 11th minute, they worked the ball across the pitch form left to right and Walker played in Eriksen in space in the right corner of the box, but his shot couldn't be kept down and flew over the far angle of post and crossbar.

A break by Liverpool ended with a scramble around the penalty spot and Dier and Alderweireld put in blocks to stop Firmino and Coutinho for testing Lloris. Whenever players had the ball in midfield, they had to unload it quickly, as they were closed down rapidly. Wijnaldum put it straight through to Man, who got away from Davies, who couldn't foul him and then lifted the ball over Lloris from 12 yards out to go a goal up. Wanyama had the ball taken off him and it was moved around the Tottenham midfield to set the pacy Mane away.

Soon after Dier got the ball taken off him and Lloris denied Coutinho and Firmino before the ball fell for Mane to hook it into the net past two men on the line. It was like Manchester City all over again and we had allowed Liverpool to dictate the game in the first half, when we are notoriously slow starters. .To go two down to a team who had been struggling was not the expected start and with our good defensive record, we had shot our self in the foot.

Mane almost claimed a hat-trick in six minutes and only Lloris coming out to meet the Senegal striker deflected the ball narrowly wide. And then Hugo produced a fine stop one handed to his left to push Mane's effort from a partially cleared corner wide.

Spurs were getting exposed on our left side, with little protection in front of Davies to stop Clyne and Mane on that side of the pitch. As well, the way we play out form the back was causing problems, with players being denied time to pick a pass, ending up with the ball being kicked upfield to nobody in particular. Davies did find Son, who forced Mignolet to block his effort, with Davies' cross picking out Dele Alli's run from the penalty spot to the edge of the six yard box, but his header towards goal was headed over.

A fantastically timed tackle by Dier stopped Mane getting a shot in as the ball found him in space in the right side of the box, then Lloris got lucky when Firmino blocked a clearance on the edge of the box and Hugo was lucky to get the chance to have a second go. The Spurs captain had to dive low to his left to stop Coutinho, who had space in the area, as Tottenham looked ragged.

A Harry Kane flick on put Son through and Milner took him tight high right on the edge of the box, but no card despite Son getting booked for a similar tackle earlier. Eriksen took it and skimmed the top of the net as the ball went over the wall that Coutinho squatted down behind to stop a low shot. Son then almost made contact with a straight long pass by Toby, but missed the ball when he found space on the edge of the area.

It was an awful first half performance. Despite missing Vertonghen and Rose, the team looked disjointed and slow, with the obvious approach Liverpool would take, they failed to play in a way that worked around Liverpool. The passing was poor and there was little awareness of Mane's threat. Having said that the home team got the bounce of the ball and a lot of decisions that weren't awarded to Tottenham for the same type of challenge. It was like going back thirty years.

At the start of the second half, Spurs were failing to clear the ball when it came into the box and that meant more pressure coming onto the defence. With the ball being passed to defenders by Lloris, it invited pressure and it wasn't what they needed at that stage of the game. Runners weren't being picked up and it was so unlike Spurs to play in a way that allowed the opposition so much opportunity to make inroads into the Tottenham area. Liverpool were closing hard and they found the way blocked by a couple of players when they did get near the Liverpool box. Could Liverpool continue at this pace ?

Kane looked like he would get onto Eriksen's free-kick, but his shot hit the post and he was offside anyway. It was a brief respite from Liverpool's closing down, with Spurs lucky to turn around only 0-2 behind. Ironically, the ref gave a foul throw against Eriksen, when Milner had performed the same without being pulled up for it. All you ask for is consistency from the referee, but Taylor couldn't even give that.

Dembele was winning the ball, but failed to make much of it and it was one of his frustrating performances when he should be using his strength and power, but ,by not moving the ball, he got caught in possession. Long balls forward were still being picked off by Liverpool and while we had some more possession, it was not getting Spurs into positions of threat. Almost every corner picked out Mignolet and reduced the chance of making anything from a set piece (not that we often do).

Son did well to manufacture a cross from the right and Toby won it, but only got half a header on it, as he was challenged and it looped easily for Mignolet to claim. The failure of Taylor to tell a tackle from when someone pulls out not only earned Winks a booking, but gave Matip a header on goal form the free-kick that he failed to get a good contact on. It allowed Lloris to get behind the ball in front of the goal line.

Walker was put in the clear on the right by Winks' pass, but his deep cross went off as he looked for Dele, but a loose touch by the midfielder launched a move that ended with Coutinho dragging a shot wide. Taylor was losing it as he started booking any tackle that the crowd howled for. It broke up any flow to the game and when Spurs got into a position to build, a foul came in to do the same or a player stayed down to prevent any head of steam building up.

The fact that Spurs ended up with five yellow cards and will face a Premier League fine, but when one was for a challenge that Winks pulled out of, it is a bit of a joke. Once more, it showed that referees don't understand the game.

A lack of communication saw Toby clear when Lloris came way out of the box, leaving Wijnaldum the chance to lob into an empty goal from 40 yards, but it curled away from goal in the box, but then Davies almost chested it past Hugo. It summed up the performance really.

Despite leading, the red plastic bucket seats were emptying and the four minutes of added time allowed Mane to go off to the home crowd's applause, but despite Alderweireld's run forward ending in a volley, it went harmlessly wide. It was only in the last minute that Spurs started playing the ball as Liverpool players came in, presenting Walker with a crossing opportunity, but like most other crosses today, it went way away from a Spurs player.

Liverpool were not a shadow of their first half display in the second 45, but Tottenham fared only a little better and made it easy for the Reds to see out the game to inflict Tottenham's third defeat of the season and let them into fifth place and Spurs to lose ground on Chelsea and the chasing teams to make ground on us.

The reaction now, with 13 games left is what will define our season.  Can they produce a reaction that tots up points in the last third of the season to push Chelsea or will the belief falter ?  If we can't win it, I want to be second, but give it a go Spurs.  Do it with style.

Burton Bradstock

 
 

 

PUB FACT*

Liverpool were named after the EU organ donor glut of 1890.
 

 

 
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What you thought
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Other scores during this week :
Arsenal 2 Hull City 0 Saturday
Manchester United 2 Watford 0 Saturday
Middlesbrough 0 Everton 0 Saturday
Stoke City 1 Crystal Palace 0 Saturday
Sunderland 0 Southampton 4 Saturday
West Ham United London 2 West Bromwich Albion 2 Saturday
Burnley 1 Chelsea 1 Sunday
Swansea City 2 Leicester City 0 Sunday
Bournemouth 0 Manchester City 2 Monday

 

   

League Table  2016-17
  P W D L F A Pts GD
1 Chelsea 25 19 3 3 52 18 60 +34
2 Manchester City 25 15 4 5 51 29 52 +22
3 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 25 14 8 3 46 18 50 +28
4 Arsenal 25 15 5 5 54 28 50 +26
5 Liverpool 25 14 7 4 54 29 49 +25
6 Manchester United 25 13 9 3 38 21 48 +17
7 Everton 25 11 9 6 40 27 41 +13
8 West Bromwich Albion 25 10 7 8 34 31 37 +3
9 Stoke City 25 8 8 9 30 36 32 -6
10 West Ham United London 25 9 5 11 34 43 32 -9
11 Southampton 25 8 6 11 28 31 30 -3
12 Watford 25 8 6 11 28 42 30 -14
13 Burnley 25 9 3 13 27 36 28 -9
14 Bournemouth 25 7 5 13 35 49 26 -14
15 Swansea City 25 7 3 15 31 54 24 -23
16 Middlesbrough 25 4 10 11 19 27 22 -8
17 Leicester City 25 5 6 14 24 43 21 -19
18 Hull City 25 5 5 15 22 49 20 -27
19 Crystal Palace 25 5 4 16 32 46 19 -14
20 Sunderland 25 5 4 16 24 46 19 -24


Position before match :  2nd
Position after match : 
Position after the weekend :

 

* Pub facts may not actually be true, but after a few pints everyone might think so.

 

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