English football is gearing up for its busiest period yet, thanks to a Covid outbreak, this was Tottenham’s first match in two weeks.
Antonio Conte made five changes to the side that beat Norwich, as Japhet Tanganga, Oliver Skipp, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Sergio Reguilon and Lucas Moura made way for Emerson Royal, Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Winks, Ryan Sessegnon and Dele Alli. Tottenham set up in a 3-5-2 shape.
It was all change in midfield for Liverpool as Thiago Alcântara and Jordan Henderson both tested positive for Covid and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dropped to the bench after playing most of the mid-week match against Newcastle. James Milner, Naby Keïta and Tyler Morton replaced them. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Liverpool had the early possession, allowing Tottenham to display their defensive drilling. The midfield would shift from side to side, with Alli and Ndombele taking up initially narrow positions to block the passes through the centre then moving out to the full-backs when Liverpool passed wide. By leaving it to the midfielders to cover the wide areas, Tottenham were able to keep their five defenders back, ensuring Liverpool’s attackers had little space to use.
The obvious issue with this was that it left a lot of space for Spurs’ midfielders to cover. Liverpool switched the ball from flank to flank, and while they were doing so a little slowly to actually punish Tottenham, it served a purpose at this early stage in fatiguing Alli and Ndombele as they moved from inside to outside and back again over and over. Liverpool would occasionally attempt to work the ball down the flank, however this was a poor choice as it allowed Spurs to surround and trap them against the touchline.
Tottenham took the lead through counterpressing. As Liverpool attempted to break forward, Winks slid in in midfield to intercept the ball and Alli moved it back to Davinson Sanchez. Able to see everything in front of him, he picked out a pass into Ndombele in space, as Milner had been drawn across to cover behind Trent Alexander-Arnold. Ndombele turned and played a through ball into Harry Kane to roll into the far corner. The left side of Liverpool’s defence was outnumbered, with Andy Robertson facing outwards to deal with the potential overlapping run of Emerson, while Ibrahima Konaté faced towards Kane while maintaining a slightly more central position to also cut off a pass into Son Heung-min behind him. Konaté nearly got across to block the shot, but Ndombele sent it as far right as possible without simply passing to Robertson, seeing the ball go down Kane’s blind side, far enough away that Konaté couldn’t make up the distance in time. This issue could have been solved by Robertson taking up a more narrow position to cut off Kane then moving out to deal with Emerson in the less dangerous wide area, or, even better, Joël Matip shifting across to pick up Son instead of ball-watching, allowing Konaté to concentrate on dealing with Kane. Instead Konaté and Robertson found themselves outnumbered and as a result Liverpool found themselves a goal behind.
With Kane and Son remaining high in attack as Liverpool tried to break Spurs down, Tottenham were able to threaten on the counter-attack. With a bit of quality they could have easily doubled or tripled their lead on the break.
Milner was dropping back to the left, leaving Ndombele with a bit of a headache: should he move out to pressure Milner as he did with Robertson or should he let him go free? Leaving Milner free left him with time and space to help work the ball forward, finding passing angles past Spurs’ front two, but by stepping out to pressure Milner, Ndombele would allow Robertson to go free, requiring someone else to pick him up.
This can be seen in Liverpool’s equalising goal. Ndombele steps up to pressure Milner, requiring Emerson to take over marking duties of Robertson as Liverpool play down the left. Meanwhile, inside, Sadio Mané came short towards the ball, drawing Sanchez up the field. Robertson received the ball on the left then sprayed it in behind, with Mané bursting past Sanchez to get to it first, forcing Eric Dier across to cover. Mané hit a low cross inside that Ben Davies cut out, but Robertson was first to the loose ball, dinking a lovely little cross directly onto the head of Diogo Jota to finish.
The game followed this same pattern until Jürgen Klopp brought on Roberto Firmino for Morton, switching to a 4-2-3-1, with Jota moving to the right flank and Firmino playing off Mohamed Salah.
Shortly after, Conte replaced Ndombele with Skipp. Tottenham maintained a 3-5-2 shape but by bringing on a more defensive midfielder, they were able to give Alli more freedom to push forward and join the attack.
This backfired pretty much straight away. Alli attacked the box and was left on the ground at the wrong end of the pitch as Liverpool countered, taking over twenty seconds to meander back into position. Liverpool slowly progressed the ball, finally finding a gap down the left and crossing towards Salah at the back post. Hugo Lloris saved the initial header but Alexander-Arnold was quickest to the loose ball and fired a cross to a stooping Robertson to head in at the opposite post, left free by Dier deserting him to pick up Firmino and Emerson ball-watching.
This lead didn’t last for long though as Son soon equalised. Spurs managed to cut through Liverpool’s midfield easily: Firmino failed to block the pass into Winks, so Keïta was drawn forward to press then Winks laid off the ball and attacked the gap the Guinean left. He had acres of space to play a pass in behind Liverpool’s high line. Alisson Becker rushed out to sweep and got to the ball first, only to let it run through him, leaving Son to roll the ball into an empty net.
Robertson was then sent off straight after for a sloppy challenge, reducing the Reds to ten men. Milner filled in at left-back but Klopp soon took off Mané for Kostas Tsimikas so Milner could return to the midfield rather than leaving Keïta alone in the centre. This saw Firmino move out to the left, with Liverpool in a 4-2-3.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Liverpool continued to pressure Spurs and maintained a high line, however it was unsurprisingly Tottenham that controlled the last moments of the game. Liverpool accepted that they had lost control in injury time, bringing on Joe Gomez for Jota as they switched to a back five.
Spurs were only able to create one decent chance as Liverpool saw the game out. Both sides had a chance at winning the game only to waste it with sloppy play, so neither team could feel hard done by with a point apiece.
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