Torres Spares Liverpool Blushes

Last Minute Heart Break For Spurs

English Premiership

LIVERPOOL 2 - 2 Tottenham

Scorers:
LIV - Voronin (12min); Torres (90+1min);
TOT - Keane (45, 47min);

A last-gasp header from Fernando Torres rescued a barely deserved point for the Reds as they once again, stuttered to finish line and was on the verge of a unimaginable second successive defeat at Anfield.

It was supposed to be a fortress and that Liverpool have reigned supreme there ever since Rafa Benitez took over in 2004. It seemed as though they have lost the aura of invincibility and also lacked confidence.

The visiting Tottenham fans were in full voice throughout the game, urging the men in white and giving them a boost despite their disappointing midweek draw with Aston Villa, which resulted in a 4-4 goal fest.

Liverpool's form of late had been abysmal and the result of this game meant that they haven't won a single game since the 1st of September. A certainly worrying sign for Rafa and his men in red.

It all seem ominous when Liverpool took the lead as early as the 12th minute when Andiry Voronin pounced on Paul Robinson's save and he was able to direct it into the net.

The England number one had a torrid time dealing with Steven Gerrard's free kick and he spilled it right into the path of the Ukrainian striker. He was once again beaten later at another free kick but the left hand post saved him.



Liverpool seemed to put away the midweek troubles behind and did alright but just didn't put enough pressure on the Spurs defence as they should have. As leaky as they have, they stood strong against the duo of Voronin and Torres.

Just when Liverpool thought they could go into the half time break with a one goal cushion, Robbie Keane was on hand to pounce on the static Liverpool defence and punish them just before the half time break.

Dimitar Berbatov's headed ball landed right in his path and that took Finnan and Carragher by surprise. The Irish striker did what he does best and hooked the ball just past Reina and into the empty net.

It was about to get worst for the men in reds.

Right after half time, Liverpool were once again punished for losing concentration and in an almost identical situation, Robbie Keane lost his marker and was able to slammed the ball past the helpless Reina.

Liverpool were caught out and the one goal lead has now gone up the smokes. Perhaps Daniel Agger's injury has cost them some problems and Sami Hyypia isn't getting any younger. The big Finn was constantly beaten in the air by Berbatov. A rare sight considering how he is best at dealing with aerial threats.


Then it was a deja vu image for the Liverpool fans as they had to sit through the last 20 minutes thinking about how the season that promised so much had sort of gone pear shape in such a short period of time.

Liverpool then got hold of the stranglehold of the game and relentlessly pushing Spurs onto the backfoot. And the urban myth about how Spurs usually fail to hold on to lead came true once again, right on the full time mark.

Steve Finnan's deep cross found Fernando Torres, who leaped like a salmon over Younes Kaboul and Pascal Chimbonda, before scoring a thumping header right into Paul Robinson's near post. It was at the nick of time and the striker paid dividends of the manager's trust in him.

Drogballs:

Performance wise, it's an improvement from the diabolical display on Thursday but this is still not good enough. There seemed to be a problem with Liverpool when it comes to retaining possession and coming up with attacking moves.

Perhaps Rafa's tinkering is really not working at the moment and the players doesn't have the time to glue and gel into a unit. They seemed complete strangers on the pitch at times.

And where was the constant pressure from the team that we've seen in the past? We used to surround teams and batter them but now it seemed like we focussed too much on utilising the pace and movement of Torres and there are just too much aimless ball sprayed everywhere.

The aura of fear that Liverpool usually impose on teams seemed to be dissipating as well and it's not a good sign. It might be due to lack of confidence or other factor but we need to buck up and do something about this.

International break is here and it's time for Rafa to take a good look at things and make it right before the October 20th big clash with Everton. A lot is at stake for that game and much is expected from them.