They rarely do things the easy way.
You would have been forgiven for missing it. After Loris Karius punched Christian Eriksen’s cross away, Victor Wanyama sent it back with the type of venom and sheer ferocity you use to expect from someone like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. With Liverpool hanging on for a 1-0 win – they don’t often do 1-0 wins – the Nigerian midfielder’s screeching thunderbolt breathed new life into the game at Anfield, triggering one of the wildest and most breathlessly intense climaxes we’ve seen in a Premier League game.
Yet, while Wanyama was rightly lauded for his almighty wallop, replays confirmed that the ball really shouldn’t have reached his boot in the first place. A lot of the blame, rather unsurprisingly, was directed at Karius. The young German goalkeeper has endured a difficult 18 months at Anfield since arriving from Mainz, but to make him the scapegoat for Wanyama’s goal would be to neglect the slack defending from the players in front of him.
Firstly, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip both fail to sufficiently defend Eriksen’s cross at the near post. With both centre-halves failing to react, Karius was forced to intervene. With just Dejan Lovren and Harry Kane behind him, Karius could not risk leaving it for the Croatian to clear. If he missed, it was a certain goal for Kane anyway.
Karius came and punched the ball, and punched it reasonably well. His connection sent the ball flying towards the edge of the penalty area, where Emre Can fails to complete the clearance. As you can see below, the German midfielder has plenty of space but still fails to apply a meaningful touch and hoof the ball into the stratosphere, thus clearing the danger. Instead, he lazily swung his left leg at the ball and allowed it to travel past him and into Wanyama’s path.
Finally, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is too slow in reacting to the loose ball, allowing Wanyama to get there ahead of him and equalise. These are not major errors like a game-deciding own goal or a woefully under-hit backpass, but they are still errors. Karius has shouldered his fair share of blame this season, as has Simon Mignolet and, while that’s not to say it wasn’t warranted, the defending also needs to be as intensely scrutinised.
The trajectory and pace of Eriksen’s cross made it a difficult for one to Karius. Instead, he made a quick decision to beat the ball away and would have been excused for thinking that the ball would have been further cleared by one of his teammates.
Similarly, for the first penalty decision, Lovren’s failed clearance let Kane – who was offside – in before going down under the challenge of Karius. Again, while the keeper came out and committed himself, there was minimal contact on the England striker. As for Lovren, though, his inability to clear the danger was a disappointing contribution to what had otherwise been a decent game for the Croatian.
And it’s true. Lovren had played well for much of the game, as did van Dijk, but high-profile errors only offered Spurs a way back into the game. After Mohamed Salah produced a wonderful goal to put Liverpool 2-1 ahead and send Jurgen Klopp racing down the touchline in unbridled ecstasy, van Dijk’s error led to Spurs’ second penalty, which Kane converted having seen his first saved by Karius.
Liverpool fans have raged at Erik Lamela’s part in the penalty incident. The Argentine went down dramatically after contact from van Dijk and, although opinions are divided over whether giving the penalty was the correct decision, the Dutch defender failed to clear the ball in the first place. Van Dijk first lost out with the header to Fernando Llorente. He then allowed the ball to bounce, which gave Lamela an opportunity to get his body between the defender and the ball. At that point, you could practically hear thousands of Liverpool fans scream ‘put your foot through it’ but it wasn’t to be.
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There are certainly a number of questions that have been raised by the quality of the refereeing at Anfield. Jon Moss appeared to award the first penalty despite clearly telling his linesman that he didn’t know whether Lovren had touched the ball. As for the second one, Lamela was originally offside so, whether he dived or not, the penalty should not have been rewarded in the first place.
However, the spotlight shining on the officials’ performance fails to mask Liverpool’s continuing defensive issues. The Reds have been a breathtaking attacking unit at times this season but the fact that they have kept just one clean sheet since van Dijk was signed highlights the depth of the problem. They have conceded 31 goals in the league this season and, while third place certainly reflects encouraging progress in Klopp’s quest to turn this side into title contenders, the gulf between themselves and Manchester City will remain unless they rid themselves of their ongoing problems at the back.
A more stout defence would of course make them less exciting from a neutral perspective but, crucially, it would make them a much stronger team – and that has to be more appealing than these chaotic attempts at holding on to leads and seeing out matches.
