I think it was
@Bullet that pointed out the nature of our play - good, poor, good, poor, etcetera. I'd actually disagree - we were almost uniformly poor throughout. The first half saw three 50-50s swing their way for every one that we managed to win - the second half saw perhaps two 50-50s go their way for every one we could win. In the event, that proved enough for us to snatch a draw, but that shouldn't hide the fact that we were outplayed, outrun and outfought for long stretches of this game. Passes routinely went astray, balls sent up failed to stick, and Liverpool ran at us with unsettling ease.
Play like that at Anfield and we'll be stuffed - two sides came out onto the field today espousing the same brand of expansive, attacking, pressing football, but only one actually played like it. Against Everton, a sluggish, laboured performance was understandable given that we were away from home and up against two banks of four (or even four defenders and five in midfield) for the majority of the game. Here,it's difficult to stomach given that we were up against the type of team we should at least look fluid against.
Short-term concern is that fitness, team cohesion and sharpness look *way* off, and that f*cking pointless, ludicrously stupid international break coming up where irrelevant national teams play irrelevant f*cking friendlies doesn't help in that regard (also, why are our players falling ill in tandem with each other?). Longer term concern is that, although we filled urgent gaps that needed to be filled, our bench looks threadbare and devoid of game-changers - Liverpool could bring on Origi and Sturridge, while we could respond with Janssen alone. Son wasn't brought on for whatever reason, but a fully fit squad (minus Wimmer and Lloris) should have more options to change a game than throwing on untested Josh Onomah for Kane (and, to be fair to him, he did well enough in his minutes, last-second offside call aside). We lack pace allied with close control on the pitch ,and on the bench - Liverpool had both in abundance, and in Mane it particular, it showed. Problem is, Mane cost a bomb - we won't pay anything like as much for an equivalent player, so we have to hope that N'Koudou (when he arrives ten years from now) will approximate a far more expensive player for a fraction of the price. I'm beginning to come around to the idea of Zaha, to be honest - if nothing else, he brings pace, and we need it, as evidenced by today.
Overall, Vorm did brilliantly well, and really oozed calm and precision today (his reflexes were outstanding, and his decision-making equally lucid). Toby was fantastic, Wanyama did well once he assumed sole responsibility for the defensive midfield, Janssen looked eager and stretched the game a bit, and Lamela showed some badly needed inventiveness and grafted away relentlessly (as usual). Rose was troubled down his flank all game, but ultimately came out on top and got a goal in the bargain. Kane was *really* bad, unable to hold the ball up consistently and giving it away whenever he did manage to get it into his feet - ditto Alli and Eriksen.
Oh, and the ref was absolute sh*te.
