This weekend’s big six clash has come at a crucial moment for both Liverpool and Tottenham.
The hosts might be six points clear at top of the Premier League table, but a stuttering performance against Manchester United was enough to raise doubts about the long-term viability of a tactical system that opponents have begun to suss out.
For Tottenham, the crisis is deepening by the week. Mauricio Pochettino’s team are obviously struggling to motivate themselves following last season’s overachievement, and yet their issues are as much tactical as psychological; Spurs were lucky not to lose to a Watford team who outwitted them all over the pitch.
Ahead of a potentially decisive match in the respective seasons of both Liverpool and Spurs, we take a look at the tactical problems developing at the two clubs – and what they need to do on Sunday to fix them.
Tottenham
- The tactical problems
No matter what formation Mauricio Pochettino picks - 4-2-3-1, diamond 4-4-2, or 3-4-2-1 (the latter attempted in the 1-1 draw with Watford) - the result is the same: central midfield drifting through matches, forwards disconnected from the creative players, and a sense that everyone is just too disjointed and low energy to pull defensive blocks out of shape.
Their meandering football is the knock-on effect of poor recruitment. With several key players thinking of their next move as contracts run down, others aware the manager wanted them gone last summer, and the vast majority of the squad potentially immune to Pochettino’s methods after too many years at the club, the energy has gone.
More specifically, Pochettino teams have always pressed high and hard, bunching in narrow attacking lines to hit on the counter or, via quick short passes in the central column, to suck the opponent inwards for marauding full-backs to excel. Danny Rose and Serge Aurier just aren’t good enough to be key players, and without penetration out wide it is easy to defend against Spurs. Dele Alli’s poor form has heaped creative pressure on want-away Christian Eriksen, leaving a flat and faltering attacking midfield.
- How to solve it against Liverpool
Liverpool’s openness ought to significantly help Spurs, who will be relieved to play against relative equals after Watford, Brighton, and Southampton all restricted space in the final third.
Bayern Munich’s 7-2 win in London is evidence this isn’t solely a case of opposition shape, however, and yet the success both Manchester United and Sheffield United have had against Liverpool offers Spurs a template for Sunday.
In a 3-5-2, Liverpool can be stopped. Using a system with wing-backs will allow Spurs to get tight to Jurgen Klopp’s playmakers (the full-backs) while a back three can shepherd Liverpool’s forwards man for man. What’s more, two fast strikers can split like Marcus Rashford and Daniel James did, getting behind the Liverpool full-backs and punishing them on the counter. Son Heung-Min, the only in-form Spurs player, will be crucial in the spaces behind Trent Alexander-Arnold.