Daniel’s Debrief: Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham

So much of this in the mind.

They’ve not been able to handle the pressure in recent weeks. But it’s off now and you could clearly sense the intangible lifting of the pressure today.

It’s the first time Liverpool play with any freedom, adventure or enjoyment since… probably Chelsea at the back end of January.

There’s so much more verve and energy to the performance and while there’s been fair criticisms of players and manager in recent weeks, today’s performance - after an eight-day break so rare that it is sacred - shows that fatigue was the biggest factor here.

The first time they get a week between games, they produce a performance that is high in intensity and quality. 

I was interested in the team selection today. The pressure is off for Jurgen Klopp as much as it is for the players and he had a few things he could’ve done with the lineup today.

Going with his ostensibly strongest eleven, giving some younger players a go, picking some of the fringe players. 

He ends up going for a bit of a mixture but it’s actually only one change from last week. Barring Joe Gomez, he goes with arguably his most in-form team.

The likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Ibrahima Konate and Darwin Nunez aren’t picked to start despite being in the perceived strongest eleven.

With all of the problems of recent weeks, there’s been a lot of focus on the things Arne Slot will need to work on, but it’s perhaps been forgotten that there’s a lot of good for him to work with too.

In Jarell Quansah, he is being given a young centre-back who is really special. His ability is one of variety and his skill set is pretty broad. 

Today, it’s noticeable how much Tottenham try to press Virgil Van Dijk and cut off the supply to and from him. 

Quansah eliminates the problems this could cause our build-up with his own comfort at coming inside on his opposing foot and carrying it. It’s so similar to what we see from Joel Matip.

Liverpool’s two best centre-backs of the last fifteen years are Van Dijk and Matip.

In many ways, Quansah fuses the characteristic of both of them.

His ball-playing abilities are evocative of Matip’s, and his defending style so obviously modelled on Van Dijk’s.

There are times he can get a little overzealous with his work and this is what happens for the Richarlison goal but for 70 minutes, it’s an exemplar of a defensive performance. 

Konate was a World Cup finalist 18 months ago and was Liverpool’s best player in the Champions League final less than two years ago.

But he’s been kept out of the team by Quansah at the minute and it can’t really be argued with. 

A player who may really benefit from Slot’s arrival is Harvey Elliott. I have a feeling that Slot will play 4-2-3-1 at Liverpool and if he does, that means there’s a number ten role available at this club for the first time in eight years.

Elliott is the best player on the pitch, for me. I much prefer him in the attacking part of midfield to the front three, where he can get his feet on the ball and influence things, as he does today.

He’s got eight assists since the turn of the calendar year.

He creates six chances on the day and one of them is the assist for the Cody Gakpo goal. This is both sides of Elliott’s game - his tenacity and indefatigability to win the ball back from Emerson Royal, and then the deftness and precision to pull off the cross.

Then, his goal. His skip to just move the ball away from Rodrigo Bentancur is a clever preparatory movement and gives him the extra space to open up his left foot and give himself every chance.

It’s still a glorious strike, though. It’s beautiful. You can watch its direction of travel and how it curves around and into the top corner. 

The last player to be used consistently as a number ten for Liverpool was Philippe Coutinho and this was so similar to an archetypal Coutinho goal. 

The way Elliott sets himself and gets the bend on it is so reminiscent of Coutinho’s Dortmund goal.

What always strikes me about Elliott, too, is his game intelligence and positional sense, and how he recognises game states.

He holds width a lot in the first half and alternates so effectively with Trent Alexander-Arnold between the touchline and the half-space.

And to me, Liverpool play like their 2019/20 selves today. Not just in terms of the quality of the performance, but tactically too.

Alexander-Arnold and the right-sided midfielder - Elliott in this case - stay wide and allow Mohamed Salah to play within the half-space and be more influential in central areas.

It’s exactly what we do with Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson in the title-winning season and the first half in particular plays out exactly as a game from that season would’ve done.

The inverted system got us out of a hole last April but this season, our best performances have come when we’ve used the right-back as a genuine one.

There’s a certain type of game that perhaps suits an inverted full-back system, but it’s not every game as a go-to strategy.

Alexander-Arnold is great today. It’s mad to see him overlapping onto the end of a pass from Alexis Mac Allister because it’s just not something he’s been instructed to do in recent times.

Salah’s best performance since Newcastle. No coincidence that it comes when Alexander-Arnold isn’t inverted. Salah can become so isolated in that system.

He loves Tottenham, does Salah, and Royal will sleep well tonight. Quite how he’s made 100 appearances for a Tottenham side that have been managed by Antonio Conte durian that period is unfathomable.

Salah peels away from him for his goal and the power of his header is good, and even though the placement isn’t, Guglielmo Vicario’s positioning is unorthodox to say the least and it’s 1-0.

He could bag himself a few more, Salah, but even with just the one goal, has enough involvements for the rest of the game to provide encouragement.

And then there’s Andy Robertson’s goal. A goal that starts with one full-back and ends with another is so typical of Klopp’s Liverpool pre-2022.

It reminded me so much of Robertson’s Salzburg goal in the title-winning season.

He’s great today, Robertson. So much better.

Gakpo. Very good. He’s had a decent run of games now and drifts to the left with regularity today and is so effective there.

The pass for the Salah goal is something he can only do from the left. 

It’s almost like playing players in their best position correlates with them playing well.

I think Wataru Endo does really well, and it’s a quieter day for Mac Allister. But, he still has that touch of quality and his pass in the lead up to the second goal is gorgeous.

Stefan Bajcetic has been the forgotten man but there’s so much to his game and he was a revelation coming into the team in January last season.

Positionally, I think he’s rusty but it’s a really bright cameo on the ball, and in the duels too. 

The way he takes the ball on the half-turn from deep and transitions into the second phase is exquisite.

Getting him as many minutes in these next two games is essential, in readiness for next season. Do not forget how good he is.

The last twenty minutes is a bit messy.

Darwin Nunez’s performance from the bench must be talked about. It feels like every time he has a chance to do something wrong, he takes it today. It’s a disastrous cameo and he’s bang out of form.

Gomez’s defending at the back-post is unbelievable but it’s the introduction of a more defensive full-back that enables Spurs to get a bit more joy and get themselves back in the game.

Tactically, Liverpool and Klopp get it spot on today against a competitive opponent, but one whose make-up was always going to be beneficial for us. 

We actually have less possession than Spurs but move the ball quickly when we do have it and a lot of that is down to Endo moving the ball quicker and us getting the ball into wide areas, playing around Spurs’ middle trio of Yves Bissouma, Pape Sarr and Bentancur.

I think Pedro Porro has been the second best right-back in the league this season behind Ben White, but desperately struggles with the movement that Salah and Luis Diaz offer. They intertwine well and it makes the attack really fluid.

The results are insignificant for this season now but many a good season (including this one) start with a strong end to the previous season and carrying some positivity into the next campaign would be useful.

Daniel