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LONDON — Liverpool needed some calm amid the chaos. The Premier League’s battle to continue amid rising COVID-19 cases across Britain gives every game that goes ahead a heightened sense of unpredictability, and Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham Hotspur was perhaps the most anarchic example yet.
Usually, it is Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho who inject the requisite composure into Liverpool’s play on occasions such as this. Along with Thiago Alcantara and Curtis Jones, the pair tested positive for COVID in recent days, leading Jurgen Klopp to claim before kickoff that while he was “happy” to play on Sunday, the club will be unable to fulfil fixtures next week if the situation worsens further.
However, although the list of absentees also included Jordan Henderson, who was sent home with a cold, it did not force Klopp into handing 19-year-old academy graduate Tyler Morton his full league debut anchoring the midfield, given Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was named among the substitutes. Morton looked intelligent in possession and clearly has promise, but he found himself overwhelmed at times as Spurs lined up with Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min up front in a 5-3-2 shape designed to catch Liverpool on the counterattack.
Similarly, without Van Dijk at the heart of their defence, Liverpool looked alarmingly vulnerable to the pace and movement of Tottenham’s front two. There were times when Kane and Son versus Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate did not look a fair fight.
As Liverpool threatened with typical purpose and poise at one end, Spurs raced forward with exhilarating intensity and danger at the other.
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“The challenge today was we played against Tottenham, who set up a 5-3-2, and when they won the ball as deep in their own half, they just kicked it as far as possible and Kane and Son were on their bikes,” explained Klopp. “We struggled with these…
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Source : espn
