With just a week to go before the season shuts down for the World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur hosted Liverpool.
Antonio Conte made two changes to the team that beat Marseille in mid-week. Son Heung-Min picked up an injury to rule him out while Lucas Moura dropped to the bench, replaced by Emerson Royal and Yves Bissouma. Tottenham switched to a 3-5-2 shape.
Jürgen Klopp made three changes to the side that beat Napoli. Out went Kostas Tsimikas, James Milner and Curtis Jones, replaced by Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nuñez. Liverpool continued in the 4-3-3 formation they returned to against Napoli, having used it for several years without change prior to this season.
Spurs often attempted to press Liverpool high up the pitch, but the match provided a good example of why this is difficult to pull off when playing with a back five, where half the team is in the backline. In order to press Liverpool’s backline, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ryan Sessegnon or Emerson would have to push up to join the forwards in pressing, leaving space behind them for Liverpool to exploit.
Liverpool took advantage of this as Mohamed Salah gave them the lead. As Spurs pressed, Salah dropped off into the open space between the lines, where Ibrahima Konaté found him with a pass. The Egyptian played the ball on first time to Elliott, and Liverpool switched the ball out to Robertson on the left. With the three Liverpool forwards all attacking the space around Clément Lenglet and Eric Dier seemingly uninterested in what was going on behind him, Nuñez had enough space to take a touch and turn upon receiving Robertson’s pass, before squaring the ball to Salah, left free thanks to Ben Davies and Lenglet rushing across in a panic to cover. He took a touch to lift the ball off the ground, before firing it past Hugo Lloris.
Liverpool would also press high occasionally, but for the most part they sat in a mid-block. About mid-way through the half, they began to defend in a 4-4-2 shape, with Nuñez dropping back alongside the midfielders. This was a strategy that used to be very common for Liverpool at their peak, with Sadio Mané dropping off to provide more defensive width to the midfield once Liverpool had taken the lead, but has been rare over the last couple of seasons.
Although Nuñez isn’t as well suited to the role as Mané, this was useful for Liverpool because their midfield can often be left stretched in the 4-3-3, so adding an extra body to this area can only help, but also because this allowed Elliott to position himself wider to help out Trent Alexander-Arnold defensively. Tottenham’s main way of attacking appeared to be getting the ball wide to Sessegnon pushing forward down the left, with Hojbjerg joining the strikers in the box, so giving Alexander-Arnold extra support helped to stifle this method for Spurs.
Liverpool would double their lead shortly before half-time. Spurs pressed high, so Alisson Becker kicked the ball long, handing the ball back over to Spurs. Despite being under little pressure, Dier botched his header back to Lloris though, putting Salah through on goal to score his second.
At the beginning of the second half, Liverpool seemed to ditch his 4-4-2 when defending, with Nuñez instead remaining upfield, and as a result Spurs were able to push forward down the right and cross into the box, either through Dier or Emerson.
Liverpool soon corrected this though, having Nuñez drop back again, which cleared up this issue pretty much immediately.
Spurs did manage to pull a goal back down this flank though. With Thiago Alcântara pulled forward a little towards Bentancur, Spurs were able to create a three-versus-two situation out wide, poking the ball inside to substitute Dejan Kulusevski. The Swede slipped a pass through to Harry Kane, who finished just inside the far post from a tricky angle.
To see out the game, Klopp brought on Curtis Jones and Jordan Henderson for Roberto Firmino and Elliott, allowing Nuñez to move up front as Jones took his place on the left, while Liverpool switched to more of a 4-5-1, as Salah began to drop back to help out defensively too. They then switched to a back five themselves with the introduction of Joe Gomez for Nuñez, then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Salah.
Liverpool managed to hold on to take three points from their rivals for Champions League qualification.
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