‘Tottenham’s dramatic decline has come at crucial point’
Tottenham Hotspur walked out at Liverpool with the door ajar for their Champions League hopes, only for Ange Postecoglou’s fading side to trip and fall flat on their faces at Anfield.
Do not be fooled by the 4-2 scoreline in Liverpool’s favour. It was flattery, doing Spurs a kindness their overall performance did not merit.
It must also not deceive anyone in the Spurs camp as the dramatic decline, in a season that held much promise and optimism at one time, continues its sharp downward curve at a crucial point.
Handed the opportunity to close a seven-point gap on fourth-placed Aston Villa after they slipped up at Brighton, it made a woeful, passive approach – that played into Liverpool’s hands for the first 70 minutes – even more mystifying.
The only moment of serious aggression came as Spurs walked off at half-time 2-0 down and keeper Guglielmo Vicario added to his catalogue of stops by stepping in swiftly to separate what threatened to turn into an ugly spat between team-mates Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal.
Spurs were 4-0 down after an hour but spared further embarrassment by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s host of rhythm-disrupting changes, plus the sudden sloppiness of a side overcome by complacency because of the simplicity of their task.
Richarlison and Son Heung-min struck to raise some anxiety inside Anfield, but Postecoglou cannot be kidded by another display which brutally exposed the flaws in his approach – one the Australian seemingly has no intention of changing.
It is a high-risk strategy in all respects but his defiant stance on his ideology makes it look like a chance he is prepared to take. Best of luck to him.
Postecoglou’s upbeat post-match message was presumably the result of a desire not to give his players another lashing after his broadside last week at Chelsea, where they were beaten 2-0.
It was “glass half-full” analysis of a poor show, hopefully a gallant attempt to keep spirits up otherwise it veered dangerously close to delusion.
The wheels have fallen off the ‘Big Ange’ bandwagon in recent weeks and, for all his efforts at expectation management, there must still be disappointment if Spurs, as looks likely, miss out to Villa on the top four and Champions League football.
Yes, it is an improvement on last season. Yes, it is relatively early days in the Postecoglou project. Yes, they have been more pleasing on the eye than under Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte (not difficult admittedly) but when the pressure was on they failed to deliver again.
Spurs have shown the old lack of self-belief, hence why the frailties in their set-up – that make them far too easy to play and score against – have been brought into much sharper relief.
At their peak this season, they were top of the table on 3 November with 26 points after eight wins and two draws in their first 10 games. It seems an age ago now.
