This video can be seen with full footage here.
In their last match before Christmas, Liverpool travelled down to London to face Tottenham Hotspur.
Arne Slot made one change to the side that beat Brighton, as Conor Bradley replaced Joe Gomez.
Thomas Frank made one change to the team that lost to Nottingham Forest, as Lucas Bergvall came in for Richarlison.
It was Tottenham that started the much better side. Defending with man orientations, Curtis Jones pushed up next to Alexis Mac Allister so that the pair picked up Rodrigo Bentancur and Archie Gray, while Ryan Gravenberch tracked Xavi Simons, resembling a 4-1-4-1 shape out of possession. Ahead of them Hugo Ekitiké would focus on Micky van de Ven.
There were two obvious issues with this approach. The first was that it left Cristian Romero free, giving him as much time as he wanted with the ball. The second was that Bergvall would tuck inside into the middle, getting space to receive the ball between the lines.
The result was that Spur had a free man to pass out, and a free man to pass to, and so easily passed through Liverpool.
Jones did start to step up and pressure Romero, and Dominik Szoboszlai would often rush back to defend against Bergvall, however this required both men leaving the men they should have been marking to do so.
With their initial approach leaving them stretched, Liverpool did begin to drop off to defend, even having Gravenberch drop into the backline, however this didn’t actually see them tighten up defensively, still leaving gaps for Spurs to exploit.
Defensively, Tottenham would drop back into a 4-4-2 shape, and although Liverpool did their usual trick of having either Jones, or Gravenberch drop back into defence to play around them, they didn’t really need to, as the Spurs forwards were doing a terrible job of blocking the passes into midfield.
As Tottenham’s midfield defended narrow though, they left little space for Liverpool to work the ball through, quickly surrounding them.
The obvious solution was to pass wide, yet Liverpool’s full-backs were often stationed high up in attack, making it difficult to find them. Even if they did, Tottenham’s full-backs were doing an excellent job of getting out to them, denying them time or space on the ball.
Florian Wirtz would sometimes drift out to the flanks to get on the ball, yet upon receiving it, he wouldn’t have anyone to exchange passes with, rendering it pointless.
The momentum changed thanks to a sending off, as Simons ran straight at Virgil van Dijk and raked his studs down his leg nowhere near the ball.
Spurs now defended deep in a 4-4-1, handing over control of the game to Liverpool. The Reds had some success playing down the left, drawing players wide to open up a pocket of space inside.
With Liverpool pushing all their outfielders up into the Spurs half, the home side did still pose a threat on the counter though, breaking quickly.
With Bradley picking up an injury, Szoboszlai was once again moved to right-back, seeing Alexander Isak come on in attack at half-time.
Liverpool focussed even more on the flanks in the second half, continuing passing moves both down the left, but also now more on the right, although Szoboszlai frequently went more direct, sending in unsuccessful crosses from that side.
Liverpool didn’t need to break down Spurs’ defence to open the scoring though. Romero handed them the ball, allowing Liverpool to break quickly, with Wirtz slipping a pass in behind for Isak to finish.
Van de Ven clattering Isak as he shot required another change for Liverpool, seeing Jeremie Frimpong come in on the right.
Ten minutes later, Liverpool would double their lead, as Frimpong received the ball out wide, dribbled inside, then cut back to cross. Deflecting off of Djed Spence, the ball looped up into the air, and Ekitiké rose above Romero to head it home.
With what should have been a comfortable lead, Liverpool mainly looked to hold onto possession, forcing Spurs into chasing them.
Spurs would end up pulling a goal back though. Liverpool’s possession came to an end with an offside; kicking it long, Spurs then won a free-kick in Liverpool’s half; and from that free-kick they won a corner.
Spurs crowded the back post, and although nothing came from this clump of bodies, the ball continued to bounce around the box. Whereas Liverpool’s players mostly stood around ball-watching, Tottenham’s tried to follow it up, and so when Ibrahima Konaté and Van Dijk failed to clear the ball, it was little surprise it fell to a Tottenham player to finish.
Pushing for an equaliser, Spurs kept pumping the ball long, pressuring the second balls, and crowding the Liverpool box.
Spurs would finish the game with nine men, as Romero was sent off for lashing out at Konaté. The defender had been in a running argument with the referee from the opening minutes and was fortunate to have made it as far as he did, which could also be said for some of his teammates, yet despite having a clear numerical advantage, Liverpool were on the back foot and lucky to hold out.
Liverpool escaped with the three points but had little else to celebrate, losing several players to injury and putting in another woeful performance.
No responses yet