Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool: Preview, Team News, Kick-off….
By Logan Holmes
Tottenham Hotspur play Liverpool in their second home Premier League match of the season. The arrival of Liverpool at White Hart Lane revives unhappy memories from last season which Spurs will want to allay this afternoon.
Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool (Premier League)
Date: Sunday, 31st August, 2014
Kick-off Time: 1.30pm (UK time)
Television: SkySports
Tottenham v Liverpool – The Last Match at the Lane
Liverpool left White Hart Lane cock-a-hoop that they had outclassed a totally dispirited Tottenham team with a 5 – 0 victory. In the embarrassing display Tottenham had Paulinho sent off and Andre Villas-Boas side had no response to the visitors’ attacking flair. The pressure had been building on AVB and the following day he parted company with Spurs.
Now under new manager Mauricio Pochettino Spurs will be hoping that the organisation, application and style that he has brought to the Spurs side can work to set aside last season’s disappointments.
Liverpool
As LJ said in his “If I were Poch” article, Liverpool have done a Tottenham Hotspur and lost their ‘star’ player and signed a host of new players this summer as Spurs had done twelve months ago. Brendon Rodgers denies there is any comparison between events at the two clubs.
One of their more recent signings is Mario Balotelli who could well make his Liverpool debut at White Hart Lane. Just as last week’s match at the Lane wasn’t about the return of Harry Redknapp and Glenn Hoddle with QPR, this week’s game isn’t about Balotelli, it’s about Tottenham. Another debutant could be Adam Lallana who was signed from Southampton.
Liverpool with their contingent of former Southampton players started the season with an unconvincing win at Anfield against the Saints. They then suffered a 3 – 1 defeat at Manchester City on Monday evening.
Brendon Rodgers will be hoping to reproduce the form of last season against Spurs to get his team back of track.
Tottenham Hotspur
Mauricio Pochettino has made the perfect start to his time as Tottenham manager with 4 consecutive wins but as he admitted in his post-match press conference following the in over AEL Limassol on Thursday evening, saying,
"Every game is different. We have to focus now on Liverpool game and it is very different to Limassol."
The area where Pochettino will have to make decisions is in defence. The arrival of Federico Fazio from Sevilla has provided options in central defence but is this the match to introduce him to the demands of the Premier League having had limited time to work with the squad? Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose would appear to be assured of their place in the team while Eric Dier, Kyle Naughton, Younes Kaboul and Fazio are in contention for the places on the right side of the back four. These decisions and how they pan out could have a huge bearing on the outcome of the game. The rst of the Spurs team, I would expect to be as started against QPR.
Liverpool will want to hit Tottenham early to dent their new-found confidence under Pochettino. Spurs must be prepared to combat those initial probings and stand tall.
Team News
Tottenham have no new injury problems with only Roberto Soldado a doubt along with Kyle Walker who is still recovering from last season’s injury.
According to BBC Sport, Liverpool’s injury concerns surround Glen Johnson, Alberto Moreno, Martin Skrtel and Jose Enrique.
Liverpool’s win at White Hart Lane last season was their first success in 7 games, Spurs having won the previous 6 matches in all competitions. Tottenham will be hoping to return to winning ways to maintain their record under Pochettino.
In a previous article, one of the ways I highlighted for Tottenham to increase their points tally for this season was to improve their record against the top-4 teams. This match is the first test of that but having taken only 1 point last season any result for Spurs would equal last year’s horrendous total of points in such games.
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On a cautionary note, last season Tottenham started with 4 wins under AVB and for their third Premier League match travelled to Arsenal, full of hope that the team would perform. Arsenal controlled the game to earn a comfortable single goal victory.
Hopefully Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur team will be able to display the form and footballing philosophy which is so important to their manager.
With a note of encouragement, I finish. Last season Pochettino’s Southampton won 1 – 0 at Anfield in mid-September. They were the first side to prevent Liverpool scoring and one of only 2 teams to stop them scoring at Anfield throughout the season, Chelsea being the other. The only other side to prevent Liverpool scoring was Arsenal at the Emirates.
That’s the sort of application and organisation that Pochettino needs from his Tottenham players this afternoon and if he can achieve it, Tottenham Hotspur could be looking at a famous victory and three points.