The vast majority of Liverpool’s squad covered themselves in glory with how they dealt with setback after setback in the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.
All with the exception, perhaps, of Diogo Jota it could be argued, according to Neil Jones, with the Portuguese international contributing to his second-half enforced exit from the pitch.
“These kinds of things happen and I don’t think any blame needs to be put on Joel Matip or indeed any Liverpool player’s shoulders – maybe with the exception of Diogo Jota,” the reporter wrote in his exclusive column with Empire of the Kop.
“He’s a bit unlucky to get two yellow cards, but the second is just a silly decision from the player and ultimately that probably cost Liverpool a chance of really hanging on in that game and maybe going on to win it as they did against Newcastle.
“The red cards are the red cards and I think you can make the case that both were red cards, even if you don’t think Jota’s first is a yellow. Those do get given as yellows and he’s sort of got away with one on Yves Bissouma which probably should have been a yellow in any case. Once he’s done that, I think the second is a second yellow, so I don’t think he can argue against that too much.”
The Merseysiders can consider themselves highly unfortunate to depart London without a point to their name after a highly contentious set of decisions from the officiating team on the day.
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It’s difficult to say with any certainty whether 10 men on the pitch would have allowed us to navigate the rest of the fixture with any success.
It has to be said, however, that Jota’s exit undoubtedly contributed to a change of plans from the manager, with the likes of Ibrahima Konate and Darwin Nunez denied opportunities to make it onto the pitch.
One can only imagine the kind of devastation the Uruguayan would have still managed to wreak on a Spurs backline that appeared there for the taking for much of the encounter.
We’ll never know! Either way, fans will rightly feel immense pride at the pains taken in an attempt to take some kind of positive result away from the English capital at the weekend.
I find it rather disgusting liverpool get two red cards and a goal disallowed especially as they should have won.