Anatomy of a Goal: How a simple defensive error was Spurs' undoing vs. Liverpool

Liverpool picked up three crucial points Tuesday evening at Anfield, getting a late goal from, of all people, Mario Balotelli to defeat fellow Champions League hopefuls Tottenham 3-2.

Much of the talk in the aftermath has examined the Italian's psyche following his first Premier League goal for the Reds - and his decision not to celebrate. The latter discussion has been equal parts hilarious and infuriating.

But significantly less time has been devoted to examining how the winning goal came about. Let's take a look, shall we?

First, the goal in full:

(Courtesy: Sportsnet)

Initially, Nabil Bentaleb and his teammates are in good position to defend the attack when Jordon Ibe picks up the ball on the right wing. The Algerian is both supporting Danny Rose and ensuring Adam Lallana can only receive the ball if it is passed backwards to him. No harm ... yet.

When Bentaleb shifts to his left to double-team Ibe, however, he leaves ample space for Lallana to run - an issue exacerbated by the fact that his positioning almost directly beside Rose allows Ibe to split the two men with a simple pass. Had Bentaleb dropped off slightly, he could have simultaneously provided cover for Rose and cut off the forward passing lane to Lallana.

Instead, Lallana is able to coast into the penalty area essentially unchallenged, with Nacer Chadli unable to make up the space in time to either make a tackle or throw off Lallana's ability to play a delightful ball across the area for Balotelli. 

For any attacking player in the Premier League, this amount of time and space in the penalty area is an unusual luxury that will rarely be wasted. Chadli makes the attempt to recover, but is unable to do so, while Bentaleb is completely taken out of the play by Ibe's simple pass.

Throw in a clever bit of movement by Balotelli to get behind his defender, and you're left with the Reds taking all three points after a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes of football.

Now, judging by everything above, the natural conclusion would be to lay the blame at the feet of Bentaleb. After all, had he not botched the double-teaming of Ibe on the right wing, Lallana doesn't have the space to run and he doesn't have the opportunity to set up the much-maligned Italian for the match-winning goal.

I was very much prepared to come to that conclusion after watching the goal multiple times. But that would probably be giving Chadli a free pass he doesn't deserve.

As evidenced by the frames below, Spurs made a concerted effort to double Ibe whenever possible on Tuesday evening, obviously weary of the teenager's dribbling ability.

Their concern wasn't without reason. Ibe, who has shown encouraging moments of pace and skill in the past two matches, was successful on six of his seven dribbles in the match, according to WhoScored.

He was also lining up on the same wing as Rose, whose defensive ability can, in the most respectful way possible, be described as the opposite of good. This isn't Branislav Ivanovic or Cesar Azpilicueta. Rose is a defensive liability, and Mauricio Pochettino clearly made it a point to ensure he didn't have a repeat of the moment that led to Arsenal's opening goal in Spurs' 2-1 win over the weekend.

All of that is the long way of saying, assuming Pochettino did instruct his players to double Ibe at every opportunity, Chadli's mistake becomes much more glaring. Knowing Bentaleb is going to shift over, the Belgian should have dropped deeper to protect against the run from Lallana, but instead is covering blades of grass while the former Southampton man bursts into the box.

Was he just tired? Well, no. He had only been on the pitch for roughly 120 seconds, replacing the unusually ineffectual Christian Eriksen in the 81st minute. Exhaustion can be ruled out.

Ultimately, he just blew the coverage. It's unfair to say he was the sole reason Tottenham lost out on what could have been a very valuable point, but it's impossible to ignore the fact that his simple error was crucial in helping the Reds collect all three of them.