The truth is Suarez should have scored and also Carroll. We are doing everything right apart from take our chances.

but maybe just let it lie now, yeah?
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A million times yes. does he know when to keep schtum?!

I think if we'd had Lennon, VDV and Defoe available we would have been going to Anfield looking for a win but instead we had to play a counter attacking 4-5-1 which has never suited us well at all. I'm just glad that we're a lot better at defending than I think we've even been in recent years

Yet people slated me for saying we didn't need a striker

Well, Cavani would've been nice eh Fred?

Parked the bus????

What I dont get is all the "Spurs parked the bus" trash. Liverpool were the home team, they were, according to some of their fans on here, going to avenge the 4-0 thrashing we gave them earlier in the season but they did not. Furthermore the stats show that Liverpool had 52% possession and Spurs had 48%, they had 15 shots with 10 on target and Spurs had 9 with 6 on target. This hardly qualifies their excuse that we "parked the bus". Whats more we passed the ball on the floor pretty well and a lot more than Pool. Yes, there were times when we hoofed out of our penalty box but in the main, I am very happy with the point we gained.

What was telling is that it was reported that we have the worse chance conversion in the league.

I wonder where we are with chance creation though... It must be a high number of chances created considering our league position v our dismal conversion rate.

Well it was the most defensive performance I've seen from Spurs this season. I was disappointed - they're the best attacking team in the league at the moment.

How many got excited when Downing came off the bench? Who would you rather have coming off the bench for the last 15 mins? Downing or Sterling? Sterling anyday of the week.

He may be young, inexperienced but he is raw and has no fear and would have attacked Walker unlike the pathetic Downing.

@comment by ValenciaY

seriously, did you even watch the match?

Spurs came for a point, parked the bus, got a point, and left. Job done.

Well played and congrats.

This is an issue Spurs had last season.

Teams come to your ground and make it hard to be broken down. We struggled to break teams down and dropped loads of points, especially vs the weaker teams who put 11 behind the ball for 90m.

I wouldn't say that Spurs "parked the bus" so much last night but we did defend in numbers at times and looked to counter.

However, I would also say that LFC played much the same tactic, and playing 1 up front for +60 mins is part of your problem. Carroll looked very decent last night but had little support . Bellamy stayed wide and did not get in the game much. Kuyt was busy, solid, but he gave the ball away a lot and was rarely in the box.

Spurs were there for the taking last night with some key players missing, and the manager too. The fact you did not take us to the cleaners was as much down to your tactics as it was ours.

LFC are a very solid unit but i think you lack the guile and flair to break stubborn teams down. You need to back yourselves more, sure you may be more open and let in a goal but you'll probably score loads more.

Downing did attack Walker , in fact it was credit to us how far back walker and ekotto stayed. They were supposed to provide some width, never happened.

Big shout out to Johnson, playing left back, proper threat and solid.

It's probably a combination of tactics and team to be honest, Devonshire. Yes, we're not attacking enough, but that wouldn't matter if we had more of a cutting edge in terms of personnel.

It's the chances not taken which are costly. Worst in the division for chance conversion

Johnson was good, redinthehead, you're not wrong. I'll add some player ratings to the thread.

A draw virtually assured Spurs of a top4 spot and that's why they played for one. It was tactically the right decision and paid off.

That was a near fully fit Spurs side with all their best players bar one. They didn't play that way because of injuries, they did it for tactical reasons and it was job done.

"8 home league games that Liverpool have drawn this season. That is two thirds of the 12 played at Anfield and no team in top flight history, since 1888, have drawn that many home games in a full season..."

Fairly even contest from where I was sitting, neither team dominated and neither side were overrun at any stage...

Downing did attack Walker

================

When on earth was that? The only thing he did was pass it back to Johnson or shoot miserably.

Put some player ratings up. What do people think?

Carroll is in really good form, looks mobile, eager, and a handful.

Great news if he keeps this up.

Btw our crossing was poor, Martin Kelly got into good positions... This must improve.

Will see Enrique and Downing in tandem v Man Utd.

Regardless of spurs tactics, we just do not have enough in attack, i agree with the op, we need some quality up there to unlock defences to tight defences. Still only 4 points behind with approx 14 games to go so thats the only positive in the league.

redconn.

Sorry to correct you when talking so knowledgably about Spurs, but you are wrong.

Spurs play 4411 virtually very game.

With no VDV we usually add Defoe in the team, and play 442. Home or away. No Defoe & Saha not ready to start that meant 4411 was a no go, nor was 442.

Without Lennon, we usually play 433 with Bale & VDV roaming free behind Ade. No VDV makes that impossible.

Spurs pretty much put out the only fit first team players they had and the tactic had to be adapted to suit. 4231. Bale supported Ade a lot more than Kranjcar so at times i was more of a 442.

The lack of VDV and Lennon and the usual back up of Defoe and Sandro is a great loss of quality personnel, but more importantly left us playing an unfamiliar formation and tactics with players playing out of position in a tough away game. Not to mention having no manager. In the circumstances we did very well. I was fearful when I saw the lineup and the subs bench

"Carroll looked very decent last night but had little support . Bellamy stayed wide and did not get in the game much. Kuyt was busy, solid, but he gave the ball away a lot and was rarely in the box."

I agree with Devonshirespur......I should probably get myself looked at...


Carroll did indeed play well as far as holding it up and flicking it on went.
Unfortunately, being alone up top there was usually nobody on hand to benefit with Kuyt and Bellamy staying too wide and Gerrard and Adam playing very deep.
The same problem was seen when crosses went in, there were either not enough bodies in the box or, when there were enough, they were all in a line and offering little in the way of options to the crosser.

VdV is the only quality player you were missing. The rest are bench players or squad quality.

Your back 4 + Keeper was the best you've got

Parker is the key to the centre of the park
Modric pulls the strings
Bale your best attacking player
Ade your starting striker

You can admittedly decry the lack of subs, but that wouldn't have made a difference for the first 70-80 minutes of bus parking.

It was a tactical decision based on the table, not some fictional Injury crisis. nothing else. And it worked as planned.

Again, well played.

redconn

In Harry's entire time at THFC, Lennon plays when fit, and Spurs play 442/4411.

Lennon is integral to our style of play and the preferred tactic and formation which is based on width and pace.

You are showing gross ingnorance if you think that players and formations and tactics are interchangable at the drop of a hat. Spurs have rarely played that formation before, and never with those players, so of course we were not be as fluid as normal. I accept that we had a more solid and defensive tactic yesterday but we were lacking three key attacking players, 2 of which would have played last night if fit, and the thrid is the back up.

Our only option to be more attacking was to play Saha and he's been at the club 2 minutes.

You call Spurs for parking the bus, you were the home team with 1 man up front, playing 451 and Kuyt and Bellamy not getting in the box and Adam and Spearing barely stepping into Spurs half. I suggest if LFC had started with Carroll and Suarez for an hour then you would have caused us 10 times more problems. Kenny was adamant that Suarez was fit, so he could have played, instead the home team played 451.

As for our fictional injury crisis, players like Sandro, Kaboul, Defoe, Lennon, VDV, Gallas have been key to our success this season. Without them our relatively small squad is weakened dramatically