The third goal is much talked about, and quite rightly. So I'm going to talk about it again. And not with average positions or stats or heat maps. Just images of the lead-up to it, because it was quite important for several reasons.
Let's start with the initial possession. It started from a throw to us, just inside Spurs' attacking third, played short:
The normal English way of playing would have the attacking team either taking a long throw, or laying a ball off to be sent forward. Not Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool, though. A short throw was taken, Henderson looking for options, but instead, sent it back to Agger, in central defence:
This is counter-intuitive to the "English Way". Liverpool had just given up territorial advantage in a good area. At the most dangerous scoreline in football - 2-0. And they did this with more than 30 minutes left to play. A short exchange of passes was inevitable going to end up with a direct ball into the forwards from a set-up pass by Gerrard to Agger, surely? No. It was played into Henderson, who was facing his own goal:
From here, Spurs must have been quite happy, as not only was the ball out of their attacking third, but they were forcing it backwards, a key factor that any defending team wants to see - prevent them from turning, and force them back to their own goal. So they must have been equally as happy to see Henderson play it all the way back to Mignolet, who then spread it to Skrtel, who had pulled wide, creating a huge gap in front of goal. All Spurs had to do now is pressure it, win it, and a shot on goal was surely theirs:
They even managed to get into position to cut off the passing lanes, so Skrtel was in trouble now. He only had a square pass to Agger as a real option, and nobody plays it square across the box. Cardinal sin numero uno in possession in the back third:
Nobody takes that option. So Agger dropping square into the penalty area was pretty pointless. Spurs could smell a chance here. Only Mignolet was an option, and he sweats with the ball is at his feet. Get ready to pounce, because Spurs are pulling this back.
But no. Skrtel does what he's not "supposed" to do. He plays it square to the checking Agger. Agger receives it on the turn with good fundamentals that we come to expect from a Rodgers player:
And suddenly, from a position where Liverpool had lost territory, had turned to their own goal, played it back to their keeper, allowed Spurs to push forward to press and close off lanes ("shuffling and funnelling"), and only had the "bad" square option across the box to play, Liverpool had suddenly opened up the field and exposed a gaping chasm in the centre of the pitch. A short pass to Flanagan, a deft turn, a cut inside, and a sweet pass to Coutinho who drove the Spurs defenders back far enough to create a distance to shoot and score, and it is game over.
Everything about that goal was "wrong" in terms of how English teams play football, and conventional English football "wisdom". I am not ashamed to say, that goal gave me a lump in the throat. Not because of the bigger picture of it's meaning in the title race. But because it gave legitimacy to those of us who have taken up the yoke of developing players, who don't always get the results that the more "traditional" teams do at the youth levels, but who nevertheless proselytise about the right way to play - the harder to develop but infinitely more rewarding skilful way. The Liverpool Way. The way to play that will have coaches, players and neutrals flocking to watch each subsequent game to see what the Tricky Reds are "going to do this week". This was football from the heavens, in a short 30 second cameo. A taster of what will be in the next few years as the team gets stronger and stronger and more successful. I've said from the beginning that Rodgers is a man of vision, who wants to create at least one all-time great team. This was a snapshot of what that would look like. Creative, innovative, different - and unstoppable in full flow.
