Tottenham vs Liverpool - Premier League (19/20 - Game 21)

[Rigadon]

Who's fit to play in midfield? Henderson. Wijnaldum? Ox? Jones??

[Alex]

I'm still of the opinion. If you have qualified for European competition, the teams should be excluded from the Carrotcock cup. Its causes meaningless fixture congestion.

Its fine as a competition. But it does need spreading out. They dont need the December and Jan 2 legged games all around the Xmas period. Thats what ****s teams up.

[DeeTheDog]

Towards the end of last season, Spurs were definitely playing better without Kane; however, that was under Pochettino who favours possession based, fluid football. Mourinho does seem to favour a more traditional centre forward, such as Drogba, Milito, Costa and Kane seemed perfect for his style of play. With a weak central midfield, I'm not sure how Spurs can feed Moura, Alli and Son to be effective as a longer ball would surely favour our centre backs.

[Buzzo]

I’m far too confident of a win here.

Am sure the team will approach it with usual due diligence done and maximum professional manner.

A draw is coming sooner or later surely?

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/carlmarkham/status/1215582311653236736[/ame]

[Shaggy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/Matt_Law_DT/status/1215585828807872512[/ame]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/01/10/liverpool-left-tottenham-wake-differing-transfer-strategies/

How Liverpool left Tottenham in their wake: The differing transfer strategies that sparked a rise and fall

Matt Law, football news correspondent

10 JANUARY 2020 • 10:41AM

In the final months of Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur reign, he would occasionally direct reporters back to the two line-ups when Jurgen Klopp took charge of his first Liverpool game at White Hart Lane in October 2015.

Of the names on Klopp’s first-ever Liverpool team-sheet, only James Milner, Adam Lallana, Divock Origi and Nathaniel Clyne are still at the club. None of those players would now start in the Reds’ strongest side.

Pochettino named a team that included Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, Erik Lamela, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane. Ben Davies and Harry Winks were among the substitutes.

Ultimately, Liverpool backed their manager while Daniel Levy eventually sacked his. But if the Tottenham chairman thought he had taken the more cost-effective option, by replacing the coach rather than the players, then the evidence would suggest otherwise.

A long-term hamstring injury to Kane has left Levy with little choice but to significantly dip into the cash reserves for a deputy or risk missing out on Champions League qualification and the associated riches.

Of the 10 players who were part of the goalless draw when Klopp first visited Tottenham, only Lloris has not yet played for Pochettino’s replacement, Jose Mourinho, and the Frenchman will return from injury as Tottenham’s first-choice goalkeeper and captain later this year.

Spurs finished that season in third place, 10 points ahead of Liverpool in eighth, but, heading into Saturday’s game between the two clubs, there has been a 38-point swing with Klopp’s Premier League leaders arriving in London 28 points ahead of the squad Mourinho has inherited.

The easy conclusion to jump to is that Liverpool have benefitted from spending considerably more money than Tottenham since Klopp’s first game in charge and, to a degree, that is true.

But the context tells a slightly different story and calls Levy’s transfer strategy, rather than his spending, into greater question.

In terms of first-team players, Liverpool spent roughly £120 million more than Tottenham before this current transfer window but that gap could narrow if Spurs decide to pay the £27m to turn Giovanni Lo Celso’s loan into a permanent move and shell out on a striker.

Even without the Lo Celso deal, however, Tottenam’s net spend is actually higher than that of Liverpool. Spurs have a net spend of around £102m over the course of the past eight transfer windows in comparison to the Reds’ £64m since Klopp’s arrival.

Put simply, Liverpool have traded better than Tottenham and one of the best examples of this was during Klopp’s first summer as manager in 2016, when the Anfield club beat Spurs to the signings of Sadio Mane from Southampton and Georginio Wijnaldum from Newcastle United.

Mane was Pochettino’s No 1 target that summer and the Argentine is even said to have shown the forward around Tottenham’s impressive Enfield training ground.

Wijnaldum, who was targeted to boost the midfield, has gone on record to confirm that he spoke to Pochettino, but said: “I just felt Liverpool wanted to come to an agreement quickly.”

Mane’s £130,000-a-week salary did not fit in with Tottenham’s wage structure at the time, but the £34m Liverpool paid for the Senegalese international has proved to be one of the bargains of recent years.

Pochettino was clearly still sore at missing out to Liverpool shortly after the 1-1 draw between the two clubs at the start of the 2016/17 season, when he said: “We need someone who has characteristics like we saw from Liverpool, like Sadio Mane, the type of player that can break the defensive line.” That need has never properly been satisfied.

Just as galling for Tottenham supporters is the fact Moussa Sissoko eventually cost their club £5m more than the £25m Liverpool paid for Wijnaldum at the end of the same transfer window.

During the following summer of 2017, Tottenham spent more than Liverpool, as they broke their transfer record on Davinson Sanchez and also recruited Fernando Llorente, Serge Aurier and Juan Foyth for a combined £85m.

But the £77m Liverpool spent on Mohammed Salah, Andrew Robertson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has proved to be far better value for money, before the January transfer window two years ago that proved to be a game-changer for the Reds.

Plenty of questions were asked about Liverpool’s ambition when they agreed to sell Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142m in January 2018 and there were just as many doubts raised when they used just over half of that fee to sign Virgil van Dijk during the same month.

They were the type of brave decisions and risks that Pochettino claimed Tottenham needed to make at the end of the same season, but his club did not sign anybody over the next two transfer windows and, just as crucially, only sold midfielder Mousa Dembele last January.

Players who had been looking for a way out, such as Alderweireld, Eriksen and Rose, were all retained and, unsurprisingly, performances started to dip as Liverpool raced away on the back of their summer 2018 spending spree on Alisson Becker, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri.

Liverpool finished last season ahead of Tottenham for the first time in Klopp’s reign and beat Spurs in the final of the Champions League, which effectively acted as the beginning of the end for Pochettino.

Rather than undertaking the “painful rebuild” that Pochettino had recommended, Levy eventually took the decision to spend money on replacing the 47 year-old rather than overhauling the squad.

Whatever it ultimately costs Levy to have sacked Pochettino and bring in Mourinho will have been cheaper than selling the likes of Eriksen and Alderweireld and signing replacements.

Levy saved Tottenham money in the short-term by using Mourinho’s appointment to agree a new three-and-a-half-year contract with Alderweireld less than a fortnight before he could have started negotiating a free-transfer summer switch to a foreign club.

But Spurs have only won one of their five games since Alderweireld re-signed, losing to Chelsea and Southampton, and have lost Kane and Sissoko to long-term injuries - exposing all the long-standing squad deficiencies all over again and potentially hitting the balance sheet.

Given the financial restrictions Tottenham’s incredible new stadium has placed on their transfer budget, Levy may well have to finally bite the bullet and be brave enough to cash in on one of his stars to try to rebuild the squad. Otherwise, Liverpool and Klopp will continue to disappear over the horizon.

[Yozza]

'The Everton game was proof'

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has also been asked about his plans for the young players who defeated Everton in the FA Cup:

"They all have individual plans. The Everton game was proof. There are different ways, these boys have to develop. We have to think how they do that in the best way.

"At this moment they have an important part in the squad. They really push, they don't behave on a training pitch like kids - that's the biggest step they've made in the last six months but on the other side they are humble enough to understand the situation.

"You can send them out to clubs where they can now get games under their belts, but they have high quality training sessions here."


Milner & Keita both out

Now a little bit of an injury update from Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "James [Milner] and Naby [Keita] are not unavailable. Both are muscle injuries, different, and they are different people. We will see how quick it will be. We don’t have to put a time frame on it because we don't know exactly.

"We are open to when they want to join us again, when the medical team gives them the green light. Not for this weekend, not for next week. then we will see.

"Dejan [Lovren] and Fabinho we expect back next week in full training."


'We want to be unpredictable'

More from the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "We want to be unpredictable so we have to be unpredictable in this game.

"We have to make things that they cannot prepare for."


'We cannot be sure what they will do'

More from the Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on what to expect from Tottenham without Harry Kane: "Very good organised side, putting emphasis on defending. The team is too good technically to only do that. They have a lot of players in midfield who can create situations.

It's a home game for them, that usually they would try and create and get a result. We cannot be sure what they will do but we can think about what he (Mourinho) did against us at Man chester United."


'Who sends you out asking these questions'

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is bang on time for his press conference and is asked about setting an all-time top-flight record: “Oh my God, who sends you out asking these questions?

"Never thought about it. If we had thought about it we would never have won all these games. That’s it."

[Fuzzy]

So Matip and Shaqiri the only two back for Spurs? Bench for both then, Gomez has deserved to start every week, and Shaqiri is a sub anyway.

I am concerned with Keita and his injuries, we will need everyone this season and he is great, but this is a bit much now. What's the longest string of games he's managed for us?


Alisson - TAA Gomez VVD Robbo - Henderson Wijnaldum Ox - Salah Mane Firmino
Adrian, Matip, Williams, Lallana, Shaq, Origi, Minamino

I have a feeling Klopp might even start Lallana instead of Ox.

[Buzzo]

I reckon Lallana might deserve a start after Everton. But happy with either him or the Ox starting.

[Cormack74]

Someone said Klopp was asking what position Moaninho played in the pc. What was all that about?

[dom9]

9 day break for most of the first choicers.

It'll be interesting to see if they come back looking fresh or rusty.

Tbh they were looking pretty fresh before their mini break anyway. And I seem to recall a similar break last season disrupted the flow somewhat.

[dom9]

Someone said Klopp was asking what position Moaninho played in the pc. What was all that about?

There's a clip on the BBC website but I can't seem to link to it.

[Mark79]

[ame]https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1215949751604207616[/ame]

[SB]

Jose will take it as a personal attack no doubt & mention it in his post match interviews lol.

[Cormack74]

There's a clip on the BBC website but I can't seem to link to it.

https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1215949751604207616

Cheers.