There’s only one Premier League club you’d pick to see late drama.
Not Manchester United and their history of Fergie Time, or indeed their late goals this season. Not Manchester City, who made it a point to salvage late wins with stoppage time strikes before Christmas, as if to emphasise even further that they’re unstoppably the champions-elect.
It has to be Liverpool, and that’s probably not a good thing.
When the Reds were 4-1 up at Anfield against City last month the game didn’t feel over. And if it weren’t for a Sergio Aguero header which hit the side-netting instead of the other side of the goal, it may not have been. And when Jurgen Klopp’s side had seemingly snatched victory from Tottenham with a stoppage time ‘winner’ thanks to a Mohamed Salah Lionel Messi impression, it again didn’t feel over. Not really. Even though it really should have.
In the end, it’s hard to point too many fingers at Liverpool’s defence. Refereeing decisions cost Liverpool on Sunday evening, and even if you think both controversial penalty decisions were technically correct, that doesn’t stop the fact that neither might have been given on another day. They weren’t defensive errors that led to the goals, not like there usually are for Liverpool. Indeed, not even Loris Karius is to blame for Victor Wanyama’s once-a-season effort.
And yet, there almost is a sense in which Liverpool’s defence contributed to their downfall last weekend.
Whilst not strictly anyone’s fault, their past now precedes them. And so when Dejan Lovren and Virgil van Dijk marshall Harry Kane well all game, and when the rest of the team defend pretty solidly as a unit, there’s still a belief that Jurgen Klopp’s defence can be got at.
That’s part of the issue: perception.
It doesn’t matter what I think, and if you’re reading this the chances are it doesn’t matter what you think either. What matters is what the attackers bearing down on Loris Karius’ goal think. Are they in a mindset where they know they’re up against an impenetrable wall who will stop at nothing to clear the ball and crush your petty attacking dreams? Or are they facing a bunch of chancers who have only managed to get lucky to escape with a clean sheet so far?
In the end, that belief to keep going right until the end may have been what saved Tottenham a point. It’s not quantifiable, nor is it very scientific. You can point to refereeing decisions, soft falls and theatrical dives if you like, but they’ve managed to get into that position, and clearly that spelled danger for Liverpool.
That shouldn’t be doom and gloom. Against Manchester United last midweek, Tottenham ran riot at Wembley when faced with the league’s most leak-proof defence. But at Anfield, they were stopped in their tracks save for two moments which will stay with anyone who saw the match for a long, long time – a penalty decision which took an age to make, and a goal which was still rising and swerving when it hit the net with such force that the ball finally came to a stop back outside the 18-yard box again.
There are signs of growth in Liverpool’s defence, as makeshift as it appears right now. But it has a reputation, and whilst they have that, the opposition would be mad not to believe until the end.