As Liverpool trudged off the pitch after a bitter 2-1 loss to Tottenham at White Hart Lane, Sky TV were quick to point out how unfortunate the Reds were and how easily they could have collected three points.

"I thought Liverpool played really, really well," added Graeme Souness in the studio.


I'd like to know what game they were watching. In many respects it's hard to blame the manager for this one. Basic errors littered Liverpool's performance. Too many times Liverpool cheaply gave the ball away in the Spurs half in decent positions.

Dirk Kuyt - for all the 'he works hard' love-in, was extremely poor in possession. Fernando Torres - well, doesn't look like he wants to be there. Raul Meireles continues to unimpress me, £11.7m is a lot of money that doesn't seem particulary well spent in my eyes. Sure, he looks OK technically but far too often he's found choosing the wrong option in the final third.

Predictably, the key battles were out wide - Glen Johnson v Gareth Bale and Paul Konchesky v Aaron Lennon. The result, rather inevitably, saw Spurs get the better of the individual confrontations. In fact, it was a fault on Tottenham's part that they didn't utilise Lennon more often, he simply tore Konchesky to shreds. The former Fulham man's positioning for the winner was indescribably poor.

I honestly can't think of a worse full-back Liverpool have had in the Premier League era. Emiliano Insua had his struggles last season but he was young and relatively inexperienced. It's different with Konchesky, we're talking about an established top-level player who's touch, positioning and defending has been appalling so far.

Being a Liverpool supporter at the moment is borderline torture, considering the league is so open this year it's disconcerting to wonder how this season could have panned out with better performances. There are some bright sparks, Lucas Leiva continues to put in some fine displays in the heart of midfield and I honestly believe a Steven Gerrard-Lucas combo in the centre could prove fruitful. Maxi Rodriguez, in spite of his terrible miss in the first half, is showing he can be effective from the left side - it will be interesting to see if Joe Cole jumps straight back into the team or not.

Roy Hodgson was praised for his adventure (lining up with two forwards) pre and post-game but it didn't really help the defensive solidity of the team, we gave Spurs far too many opportunitites. Although I suppose you could argue we wouldn't have created so many ourseleves had David Ngog not partnered Torres. That's probably true, but going offensive against Tottenham (a side who lined up with five 'attacking' players) may have not been the smartest thing to do.

It's difficult to predict where Liverpool are going this season. The league is tight enough that a run of wins would see a top four challenge but that just doesn't seem likely under Roy. Things have improved slightly from the awful start to the campaign but it's hard to imagine that things will improve dramatically. Realistically, Liverpool's playing squad was far too good for the bottom three so an improvement had to come. It has, of sorts. Is it enough to win over the Liverpool support for Hodgson? Probably not.

It's hard to get yourself out of hole when you've dug it so deep.