Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur: A preview

On current form, Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham should be licking their lips in anticipation of the three away points that will take them seven clear of Liverpool. Last week, Spurs sputtered against a spirited Middlesbrough, but still won the match – the hallmark of a successful, ambitious team. Meanwhile, Liverpool’s dreadful form since the turn of the year continued on a seemingly inexorable cycle of decline, as they were deservedly humbled by Hull City.

Tottenham are a confident, exuberant team, with Dele Alli’s joyous aggressive swagger by no means the only highlight. Although they struggled in front of goal last weekend, there was no end of attacking, inventive endeavour. Walker and Eriksen pulled the strings whilst Wanyama shored things up in midfield. As a team, they are phenomenally well organised, and there seem to be no glaring weaknesses at all.

Whilst Liverpool…

Liverpool have become as predictable as death and taxes. The current incarnation of Jürgen Klopp’s team is but a pale shadow of the side that ripped the guts out of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea back in September. Back then, anything seemed possible, including that first Premier League title to add to those eighteen League Championships. Back then, notions of a domestic treble were anything but fanciful.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

Where once Liverpool bewitched and bewildered with attacking intent and creativity, now they seem frightened to do anything but prod the ball tamely sideways. Where that fearsome attack once darted in, out and behind the opposition’s defensive lines like, to quote Sid Waddell, wasps on speed, now they seem incapable of breaching even the meagrest of defences. If Donald Trump wants pointers on how to keep those pesky Mexican drug dealers and rapists out of the US of A, he could do worse than study the defensive tactics of Liverpool’s recent opponents.

And for Liverpool, on Saturday, that is surely going to be the main problem. Few defences are as well organised as Spurs’, with the peerless Toby Alderweireld central to everything that’s good at the back. In fact, I suspect goalkeeper Hugo Lloris must have felt embarrassed whilst cashing his paycheque for his services rendered against Middlesbrough, as he rendered almost none, such was Spurs’ defensive excellence.

However, any team that contains Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana and Mané should be a match for anyone, shouldn’t it? That foursome, like Owen’s soldier, possesses both mystery and mastery, and Tottenham will need to be on full alert. In front of a fervent, baying Anfield, I would expect Liverpool to show some guts and gumption. If Jordan Henderson and the rest of the midfield can remember that football should be played from back to front rather than from side to side, and if Liverpool can rediscover the intensity of Klopp’s gegenspressing blueprint, then tomorrow’s meeting should be a feast.

However, my hunch is, given Liverpool’s porous defence and tragi-comic lack of confidence in so many areas of the park, Tottenham will edge this

encounter.