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The visitors were a man down at Anfield before they started and they showed reduced attacking verve against Liverpool

Tottenham Hotspur were a man down before they even started. Perhaps that assertion just underlines the fact that we put such weight on everything a manager says and does. In practice, though, it was difficult to tell if the visitors would have been more vibrant under the watchful eye of Harry Redknapp.

We have been taking managers very seriously for a long time. It is not enough that they pick the team and lay down the tactics. Their presence on the touchline or in the stand is somehow thought essential. Given that the cult of the manager is so marked, the lack of Redknapp made the scene a little odd. Perhaps, too, it accounted for diminished verve in his Tottenham team.

Regardless of the court case in London and his inability to get to Merseyside because of a technical problem with the plane, it was still hard to forget him. Kevin Bond, the assistant manager, and Joe Jordan, the first-team coach, would have been in no doubt as to what was required and the plan for the night had been laid down already.

All the same the true issue was whether footballers somehow need their leader in view to give of their best. It seems preposterous such an attitude could be allowed in a professional sport where players are paid so lavishly on the basis that they themselves shape the outcome of a match. Even so, this was the type of fixture that did call for managerial expertise and the lack of Rafael van der Vaart because of a calf strain was another factor to be addressed by those in the technical area..

Liverpool held some advantages. They were at home and, just as significantly, far closer to full strength than their opponents. Tottenham mostly had to resist in the first half but they still hinted at the ability that makes a Champions League campaign very likely next season.

That under-strength line-up did at least have Ledley King in its midst. That, in its own way, was a means of compensating for Redknapp’s unavailability. Given the severity of the knee trouble that has bedevilled his career, it said much that the defender was starting a match for the second time in seven days. There is hope that playing the game regularly might again become normal to the centre-half.

If Redknapp, glowering at his television, had a complaint, it would have related to the lack of confidence on the ball that hindered Tottenham’s efforts to take the game to the opposition. It was Liverpool who dominated possession before the interval but Tottenham had an intensity of their own even if they had neither sight nor sound of their manager.

Any small misgiving lay then in the conservatism. The best moment for them in the first half probably lay in Michael Dawson’s impeccable tackle on Andy Carroll after five minutes when a penalty could so easily have been conceded. Even so that stringency would not have sufficed for Redknapp. His emphasis on attacking style has, after all, seen the team notch 20 goals in 11 away fixtures in the league before they got to Anfield.

That incisiveness was out of reach in the opening 45 minutes. The interpretation of that fact is awkward to assess. It is, after all, supposed to be a taxing night when any side takes on Liverpool here. All the same we have come to expect more from Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and others in the line-up.

It was easy to think how exasperated Redknapp would have been at that stage. The bid for the title itself has faded but the manager is still entitled to call for confidence and ambition when his side is on the ball.

Tottenham, too, had beaten Liverpool in all three of their most recent encounters, including a 4-0 spree at White Hart Lane in September.

Given the context, it was natural to ask that Tottenham do more than demonstrate efficiency while containing Kenny Dalglish’s side. They did better in the second half and looked more interested in attacking but still the verve and penetration were in short supply.

The single heartening factor would have been the discipline in Tottenham ranks when Liverpool commanded so much territory.

That focus had to be even more intense when Luis Suárez made his return from suspension and came on before an adoring Anfield in the 66th minute. Everything depended then on Tottenham’s capacity to maintain order even without Redknapp’s presence.

Premier League 2011-12LiverpoolTottenham HotspurPremier LeagueKevin McCarra
guardian.co.uk

Kenny Dalglish’s containment and counterattack philosophy works to perfection to land a knockout blow

Charles Reep, Charles Hughes and Graham Taylor, advocates of the more direct route, using fewer passes to reach the opposition’s goal, would have allowed themselves a wry smile at Liverpool’s winner: Pepe Reina, Andy Carroll, Dirk Kuyt, goal. Manchester United dominated possession but Liverpool cleverly dropped off and protected the width of their penalty area more than adequately.

Often the statement is trotted out that the better team lost. But what is the better team? And is it of any consequence? This game was a perfect illustration that controlled possession is not necessarily a recipe for success, unless that superiority is translated into chances and goals. Liverpool deserve credit for a clear plan and philosophy and making substitutions at the right time.

Jamie Carragher, Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard backed off Michael Carrick, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, who bossed the midfield area. With their sharp touches and movement, they enjoyed much more of the ball. Liverpool’s midfield dropped off, avoiding the trap of playing too high and allowing Scholes and Giggs to play around and beyond them.

Liverpool did not overly attempt to destroy their passing rhythm, their discipline ensuring they defended solidly and played on the break. When Daniel Agger leapt highest to give Liverpool the lead in the first half with David de

Kenny Dalglish’s expensive summer signings show their worth on an emotional night at Anfield

The senior citizens, the 31-year-old Steve Gerrard and the 32-year-old Craig Bellamy, set the tone of tigerish aggression and scored the goals that saw off Manchester City in this match, taking Liverpool to a Wembley final for the first time since 1996, but Kenny Dalglish could take encouragement from the performance of the newcomers to his squad, who had been singled out for criticism in the wake of a limp defeat at Bolton Wanderers last weekend.

The greater narrative of English football’s leading clubs is beginning to overwhelm its cup competitions. Wednesday night’s match at Anfield was the second leg of a Carling Cup semi-final but its significance was vested almost entirely in the individual performance of two teams who are locked in struggles to sustain or restore their credibility over the whole length of the season, with more substantial ambitions than getting their hands on what must be seen, when all is said and done, as a consolatory bauble.

For Liverpool a night of vintage Anfield passion represented a chance to redeem themselves from Saturday’s humiliation, after which they received a rare public tongue-lashing from their manager. The instinct of Kenny Dalglish to protect his players from external criticism was overridden by the knowledge that they had fallen below the club’s traditional standards of effort and commitment and he was prepared to let the world see his dissatisfaction.

In the privacy of Melwood on Sunday morning he was even fiercer. “He told us as individuals and as a group that it wasn’t acceptable,” Gerrard reported. “He went through all of us. The manager has been critical to our faces.”

The Liverpool captain may have been acting on instructions when he chose to turn the spotlight on the club’s four new signings. “There is no good time to perform like that when you play for this club,” he said. “You have to win every game. The people new to the club will appreciate and understand that a bit more now after a performance like that.”

He was referring to Andy Carroll, bought from Newcastle United a year ago, and to the three summer acquisitions: Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam. A total of £70m invested, with 101 appearances between them this season and only eight goals to show for it. While Carroll was left to contemplate the error of his ways on the bench here on Wednesday night, emerging only for the four minutes of added time, the other three were given an immediate and extended opportunity to redeem themselves.

The 21-year-old Henderson had probably been the least culpable of the lot for the team’s recent failings, unfailingly bright and willing even when heads were dropping around him, although he was the one who stood to suffer most from the long-term absence of the underappreciated Lucas Leiva, from whose experience he could have learnt much. Here he was pushed forward into the middle of the attacking midfield line, just behind Bellamy, while Downing, whose erratic crossing has been a severe disappointment, was stationed on the left, with the intention of exploiting his stronger foot to get the ball into the box.

Adam, who started the season impressively but faded with the return of Gerrard, lined up alongside the captain at the base of midfield and began well, although it was he who should have been closing down Nigel de