How Spurs Drew: Home v Liverpool
By Ryan Wrenn
The simple answer to the question of how Spurs managed to draw against Liverpool Saturday is Simon Mignolet. The Belgian goalkeeper managed two massive saves, first against Clinton Njie then against Harry Kane, that many other Premier League keepers might not have.
On the whole though, Spurs managed only four shots on goal in the game. It wasn’t as if Mignolet’s goal was peppered throughout the game. Indeed, Liverpool’s defense took on their fair share, blocking shots and closing down Spurs’ attackers when they got too close to goal.
And close to goal they did get. Christian Eriksen had about as influential a game he could have in which he didn’t get the chance to stand over a dead ball. He managed the most passes of any player above Spurs’ defense, four of which directly led to a shot attempt. Considering how much of Liverpool’s game – in particular Emre Can’s game – was concentrated around denying Spurs space to build play from the center of the pitch, this is quite an accomplishment.
The problem came mostly from the recipients of Eriksen’s passes. Érik Lamela and Kyle Walker’s flank were effectively neutralized by the combined efforts of Can and Alberto Moreno. They kept Lamela wide and out of the central avenue of the pitch wherein he’s usually influential. Consequently, the best options for Eriksen were on the left of attack, meaning that Danny Rose and Njie were extensively involved in build up play.
Njie was only on the pitch due to Nacer Chadli’s injury in the first ten minutes. Being thrust into the game unexpectedly so early cannot be the easiest thing for any player and Njie’s jitters were obvious throughout the game. While he managed to find some space toward the center of the pitch to unleash a couple of quality shots, he was generally poor when he was occupying his nominal left wing role.
Rose was often up in support and Eriksen drifted left from his central position, giving Njie plenty of providers and targets. His first touch often betrayed him, unfortunately. If he wasn’t dispossessed almost immediately, his follow up passes in one-two situations were regularly misplaced. Even when he had time on the ball, he managed to gift the ball back to Liverpool’s defense and midfield almost as often as he found another Spurs player. In 36 passes attempted, only 21 found their target – an unacceptable 58 percent success rate.
The overall quality of Eriksen and Kane helped overcome the effective lack of wing play, but it’s easy to imagine the game’s outcome being very different if Njie had more close ball control and even marginally more reliable distribution.
More from Match Reports
- From glory, glory to gory, gory, for Mason and Tottenham Hotspur
- Ryan Mason’s Elegant Solution to Tottenham’s Problems
- Tottenham – Defensive needs show over last two games
- Tottenham Hotspur hold off Brighton in much needed 2-1 win
- Mason moves make the difference for lucky Tottenham against Brighton
Would Chadli have done any better had he not been injured? That’s hard to say. The Belgian is considerably larger than Njie, and of course more used to dealing with a pressing game. It could have been that Chadli’s natural lack of interest in build up play could have produced more or less the same results, or it could have meant Spurs’ found more shots.
In Njie’s defense, Liverpool’s press was likely something the young Cameroonian hadn’t seen much of in France prior to coming to Spurs. Dealing with being constantly under pressure is a learned skill, especially for a player more used to working in open space. He will continue to mature into both Spurs’ game and that of the opposition. His performance Saturday might just mean that he’s not given on-the-job training if it can be avoided for the time being.
It might be difficult to avoid however. If Chadli is sidelined with this injury and Heung-min Son takes more time to recover, Spurs might not have a better option than Njie.