Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s Draw With Tottenham

Liverpool entered the day with a chance to go top of the league. A draw or a win against Tottenham Hotspur and Jurgen Klopp’s Reds would sit top of the table tonight. A 1-1 draw is how the match would end and Liverpool are top of the table, but that’s not how it feels in this moment. It feels hopeless. It feels like the chance at destiny, the undoable, the quad slipped up and isn’t capable anymore.

There’s margins everywhere. There’s inches to be gained and lost. There’s the inches of space lost that Harry Kane gains because of an Emerson Royal pass. There’s inches gained when Luis Diaz’s shot is deflected and the game is tied. Tottenham defended the inches inside their box with their lives. That’s what Antonio Conte does with his teams.

There’s poor decisions to talk about. The final ball and the final choices weren’t there for Liverpool tonight, but we’ve seen the Reds deal with that in the past. To an extent, they did that against Tottenham. It was 1-0 after all. But none of this feels good. I don’t know what happens next.

Now join us as we examine some of the narratives, tactics, reactions, and questions Liverpool will be dealing with and the fans will be talking about in the aftermath.

Dissecting the Narrative

Obviously, this feels like hell. I sit here typing right now having to listen to TV pundits talk about how it’s two points dropped and there goes Liverpool’s title hopes. That very well may be true. Manchester City, despite the schadenfreude of their midweek collapse against Real Madrid, are a relentless team who know how to win league titles.

Some credit needs to be given to our opponents. Tottenham have taken 8 points out of the possible 12 available against Liverpool and City. They’re the kryptonite to the two best teams in world football. After all, we’re in the title race because of Tottenham’s win over City in February.

That’s just the second time Liverpool have dropped any points at all at Anfield in the league since October. There’s inches everywhere, and whatever happens at the end of this season, we’ll either be ahead or behind because of those inches.

I don’t know what happens next. Liverpool can still end the season with the same possibilities that they started with today. It could be 4 trophies. It could just be the one they already have. I really have no idea. But I don’t think this is over just yet.

What Happens Next

Hope can be painful. You don’t know what happens and all you and me can do is hold onto hope. Liverpool is a city and a club built on our collective hopes. I know for a fact that Liverpool have achieved great things from places of despair before. I write this the day after what’s the three year anniversary of the comeback against Barcelona. Nobody thought that was going to happen, but it did.

Some things aren’t in our hands anymore. That’s how it started at the beginning of the day and that’s how it ends tonight. Liverpool play Aston Villa on Tuesday in the league. That’s all we can think about now, just like all we could think about before today was the Tottenham match.

We could still end the season in glory. Varying degrees, sure, but I’ve seen this team at worst points achieve glory. We have Istanbul, we have Barcelona, we have the history. We also have Jurgen Klopp and this Liverpool team. Nothing is over yet. Everything is over when the final whistle blows on the 28th of May.

Hope can lead to joy or it can lead to despair. I don’t know what happens. I’m along for the ride. I’ve got my hope. Do you? Up the Reds.