Richarlison’s late goal earns head coach first point
‘It’s a long way to our goal but today was important’
Igor Tudor described Tottenham’s first point of his tenure as the start of “something big” after drawing at Liverpool. The Croat had overseen four straight defeats since taking over and was heading for a fifth until Richarlison’s last-minute equaliser.
Dominik Szoboszlai fired Liverpool into a first-half lead from a free-kick but they were denied a victory that would move them into fourth by a visiting side who had only had 12 senior outfield players available, unable to fill their bench. Tudor handed Premier League debuts to two teenagers but his side were still able to hold the defending champions.
“Some fresh air, some good things for the confidence of the players, everyone around the club and especially the fans,” Tudor said. “Good team spirit. Seeing the circumstances, the team was today coming here to Anfield with 12 players, with what we already know, so this is something big. We stayed in the game, we believed. I felt that we could score the goal, the players also felt that.”
The result is the first positive since Tudor took charge a month ago, moving them a point above the relegation zone. Tottenham will be aiming to overturn a three-goal deficit against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, before hosting relegation rivals Nottingham Forest at the weekendon Sunday.
“It’s a long way to our goal, which is to stay in the Premier League,” Tudor said. “We’ve still a lot of games to play, but today was important to show what they showed. Independently of the result, as I’ve said, when you are honest, you need to give everything, then football will give back to you. That was my words before the game, and this happened today.”
Liverpool missed the chance to go fourth by giving up the late goal. It was the seventh draw of a disappointing season, thanks to repeatedly failing to convert chances and lapses at the back. They had 17 shots but only managed four on target, a sign of their lack of clinical finishing.
“Of course it’s damaging but it’s how many times this has been damaging for us,” Arne Slot said. “We don’t help ourselves at all. It’s so many times this season that we’ve created much more chances than the amount of goals we score and usually in the Premier League, you see a lot of teams outperforming their chances but that’s definitely not what we are doing throughout the whole season. Then a game stays tight until the end and we struggle to keep clean sheets. We haven’t had as many clean sheets as you would want if you want to go higher up in the table and that’s a bad combination for picking up the amount of points we want to pick up.”
The latest draw follows losing at bottom-placed Wolves, to leave Liverpool stuttering at the wrong time. They sit in fifth, a point above Chelsea, but play three of their Champions League qualification rivals in the final eight games.
“That is a huge disappointment,” Szoboszlai said. “I don’t know what happened, I have nothing to say. In the last minute, again, I don’t know how many times this season already. We have to wake up.
“I feel flat. We have to wake up because if we carry on like this, we should be happy with the Conference League. I don’t know why this is happening, I honestly don’t know.”
