They came to bury Igor Tudor. Metaphorically speaking, they had already dug the hole. But somehow, against enormous odds, the giant Croatian left the field at Anfield to a standing ovation from the supporters in the away end. There is some life left in Tudor’s spell as Tottenham interim manager yet, life in his team’s season perhaps.
As for Liverpool manager Arne Slot, well who really knows? His team of champions – how odd it feels to say that now – are soft and meek and shockingly easy to play against. The door to the Champions League places swings wide open for Liverpool but somehow Slot’s failing team sit outside the weakest top four in recent Premier League history. There are no excuses.
Ahead after 18 minutes through a Dominic Szoboszlai free-kick that Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario really should have saved, Liverpool had the opportunity to sweep aside a team so weakened by injury and suspension that they couldn’t even fill their substitutes’ bench. Spurs came to Merseyside as the laughing stock of the Premier League, a team that knew only to lose.
But Liverpool couldn’t beat them. Not this Liverpool. They enjoyed possession and some territory and looked ready to go for the kill when Mo Salah – omitted at the start in deference to teenager Rio Ngumoha – was sent on with half an hour left. But as time wore on, so the feeling grew that there was something in this game for Tottenham.
Richarlison – starting his first league game since early January and booed throughout as a former Everton player – had been a nuisance throughout the game. Three times Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker had saved from him.
But when Liverpool’s bumbling back four presented him with an opportunity in the 90th minute, his moment arrived. What a dreadful goal it was from a Liverpool point of view. What a shambles.
Richarlison silenced the Liverpool supporters with a late equaliser for Tottenham on Sunday
Former Everton striker Richarlison equalised for Tottenham with this finish in the 90th minute
The Brazilian wheels away in celebration at Anfield as Liverpool players look devastated
A long ball from the back needed heading away but Andrew Robertson decided not to do it. Instead he tried to bully Randal Kolo Muani and lost. Muani then got rid of Virgil van Dijk and when he set up Richarlison in front of the Kop, he couldn’t really miss.
At the end, Tudor took the applause of the Spurs fans modestly. He will know that this result – this single point – only takes Tottenham so far.
Once the Champions League second leg against Atletico Madrid is out of the way on Wednesday – Spurs are 5-2 down from the first leg – then the rest of the season truly begins. Tottenham host Nottingham Forest next weekend and are currently only a point ahead of them at the wrong end of the table. That will be a completely different kind of game, one that Spurs will have to win and as such the pressures will be different and will certainly be greater.
Can they cope with that? I wouldn’t be so sure.
But if they don’t quite have a platform now from which to launch, at least they have some firm ground to stand on. It’s something at least.
As for Liverpool, the decision to drop Salah had been coming. The Egyptian’s modest form that led to his exclusion from the team before Christmas had not hugely improved since his return from the African Cup of Nations and Slot would arguably have made this call sooner had it not been for the risks attached.
For much of the first half, Slot’s team were flat. They were better in the second half but not definitively so. By the end they were a team simply waiting to be embarrassed. Again.
They led through Szoboszlai’s free-kick and Cody Gakpo struck the base of a post. But much of what we saw was recognisably predictable as Tottenham at last managed to look organised and disciplined for the first time under their interim manager.
Dominik Szoboszlai jumps for joy after his first-half free-kick gave Liverpool the lead vs Spurs
Tottenham’s Guglielmo Vicario got a hand to Szoboszlai’s free-kick but failed to stop it going in
With thirteen players missing through injuries or suspension, Spurs were short on the bench. There was, though, none of the chaos and confusion that has characterised Tudor’s short time at the club and that they trailed at half-time was due largely to a mistake from a goalkeeper who has rarely been consistently good enough.
Szoboszlai takes good free-kicks. We know this. But this one – in the 18th minute – had none of the power or swerve of those fizzed in at the Kop End against Arsenal and Manchester City this season. This was a good one – up and over the Tottenham wall from 22 yards – but it was also a yard inside the post and at a very good height. Vicario got one hand to it but could only paw the ball into the goal. Tottenham and Tudor needed better than that and as a result trailed relatively early once again.
Before that they had threatened twice themselves through a Dominic Solanke raid down the left and then a stinging shot from the Brazilian Souza that his compatriot Alisson Becker touched over the crossbar. Indeed Spurs had probably just had their best 18 minutes under Tudor when Liverpool’s goal arrived. Bad timing, you could say.
Liverpool – with Jeremie Frimpong on one flank and young Ngumoha on the other – were briefly elevated to a plane of greater productivity. Ryan Gravenberch turned Pape Matar Sarr far too easily in centre field and drove a shot over from 25 yards before Florian Wirtz found Ngumoha in space and Pedro Porro was required to block the low shot.
Vicario did very well, meanwhile, to touch a low Gakpo drive on to his right hand post ten minutes before half-time. That transpired to be a huge save.
For a time, Liverpool looked ready to take some kind of proper control. But then, twice at the end of the half, an old foe threatened to hurt them as Richarlison came close with two headers. One travelled wide and the other – unmarked from a corner – brought a plunging two-handed save from Alisson.
Not fully fit after hamstring trouble, Alisson required Virgil van Dijk to take his goal kicks for him. But he proved his enduring worth once again ten minutes into the second half, diving to his right to deny Richarlison again after the Brazilian had held off Van Dijk to shoot from twelve yards.
It had become a more open game by this point. Ngumoha had shot across goal and wide after a Frimpong cross found him at the far post and, soon after that Alisson save, the 17-year-old winger was fed by Szoboszlai, beat a defender in the penalty area and delivered a low cross that had to be cleared. That, in essence, was why the young forward was in the team here. Liverpool have simply lacked that kind of incisive directness too often this season.
Ngumoha’s afternoon ended shortly after as Salah was sent along with Hugo Ekitike. Energy and tempo was immediately injected into Liverpool’s football, even if composure in the final third was still largely lacking.
Salah looked motivated and hungry. He immediately rolled Djed Spence and set up Ekitike who shot wildly over. Later he seized on a mistake by Radu Dragusin and Vicario saved his low shot with his heel, even if the referee awarded a goal kick.
Replays show the free-kick wasn’t in the corner but it separated the two teams come half-time
Liverpool were more dangerous than they had been earlier but also carried an air of vulnerability. This was reflected in an edginess around Anfield.
Richarlison had already tested Alisson again with a shot from the edge of the penalty area and Liverpool did look a little ragged whenever Tottenham managed to occupy space between the midfield and the home back four.
Predictably, Spurs threatened late on. There was nothing to lose now and their supporters also sensed it. When the goal came, nobody was surprised. Liverpool have made a habit of this kind of thing this season and the longer we go on, the more likely it seems to roll Slot out of the door.
Liverpool’s Dutch coach saw his team clinch last season’s title by steamrolling Tottenham 5-1 last April. Here he was booed from the field.
