The defensive pressure, passing, and movement Liverpool bring to each match, regardless of opponent, is what Tottenham must find a way to cope with to win.
The Tottenham XI will have their hands full on Wednesday as Liverpool have used relentless movement, passing, and pressure to outscore teams consistently for the better part of two seasons. This season, despite the injuries, has been no different as Liverpool look to dominate possession and trap teams in their own half pressuring until teams are broken down or concede.
Reds Defensive Pressure
As in the heyday of the Mauricio Pochettino era the defensive pressure from Liverpool starts in the front with the three strikers. The idea is to pressure the opposing defense into mistakes and turn those turnovers into goals. This works because the front three of Saido Mane, Mohamed Salah, and Roberto Firmino all work hard and stick their noses in often.
Mane is tied with Jordon Henderson for the second most tackles on the team with 14 and Firmino is tied with Trent Alexander-Arnold one behind on 13. For comparison Harry Kane is 9th on Tottenham with 8 tackles, most of any attacking player on the team. These tackles typically occur in the attacking third and lead to mismatches and goals. 26 of Liverpool’s 27 goals have been scored in the box.
The idea is simple it takes José Mourinho’s concept of the best offense is waiting for the other team to make a mistake and amplifies it by forcing the mistake. This works often, as Liverpool average 2.25 goals per contest. It does come at a price, however, as Liverpool do concede 1.5 goals per game. So, they do work to outscore you and its starts with pressing in the front of the attack.
Liverpool’s Passing and Movement
The other two main elements of the Liverpool plan work in concert when they have the ball, which is their passing and movement on and off the ball. If you look at the Liverpool passing charts you can see the idea is to get the ball out wide on the wing to the fullbacks as much as possible and move the defense from there.
Andy Robertson leads the entire Premier League in touches with 1187 on the season, which represents ~12% of all Liverpool possession. Add in another 855 touches from TAA, second on the team, and that represents 20% of the Liverpool total. It would be even higher but TAA has missed two matches with injury this season.
The point is, the ball is wide a lot, so that the defenders must come out wide and cover creating space in the box for the backs to target. This especially works with the fullbacks coming forward as it creates overloads on one side or the other for the defense to deal with. If a wing/striker do not track back, teams will always be numbers down defensively against Liverpool and they count on that.
Then if one side is not open, the Reds have traditionally used Henderson and Fabinho or Wijnaldum to move the ball to the other side. However, Fabinho has dropped into defense so some youth has come in with Curtis Jones and the team has not really missed a beat. Jones may even have improved the midfield as the 19-year-old brings tremendous energy to his box-to-box role.
The idea is simple, pass the ball a lot in and out, and across the field. The more the ball moves the more the defense must respond. The more the defense responds the more the defense gets out of position. Eventually, they find the pass to take advantage of the defensive lapse in position and make the opponents pay.
By getting opponents out of position and getting the ball into the box, Liverpool can pepper the target time and again. Liverpool have taken 186 shots this season, 47 more than Tottenham. While Spurs have been a bit more efficient, that efficiency is erased by the Liverpool volume. And when the volume does not work, the pressure can often lead to penalties, of which Liverpool have already scored five. Bottom line, they are a lot to handle. In the defending half of the pitch.
How José Mourinho figures out how to handle the pressure or relieve some of the pressure to avoid the penalties and mistakes that lead to goals will be a key to the match. Tottenham can try to absorb as they did against Manchester City and Chelsea, but neither have been as clinical as Liverpool this season. What also know is that Liverpool do concede, and we know Tottenham can score a lot, maybe outscoring Liverpool is an option, but unlikely. Whatever the approach, we just hope it is the right one for Spurs to take the three points and a clear lead in the table.