Tottenham Hotspur were trounced 3-1 by Liverpool in the Third Round of the League Cup on Tuesday night, suffering another humbling early exit. And whlie Spurs were always going to be the underdogs and actually did play better yet again than the scoreline otherwise suggested, a loss is a loss, and in an elimination game in the cup, it is win by hook or by crook. Spurs just are not getting the results they need right now.
They did break up a streak of three straight games in total and four straight against Premier Leauge level opposition by scoring against Liverpool, and the goal was scored by Conor Gallagher, who started again as the No. 10 with James Maddison out injured and Lucas Bergvall drawing the start at the base of the midfield alongside on fire veteran Rodrigo Bentancur.
But while Gallagher scored the lone goal for Spurs, Tottenham fans were not at all fooled by the overall quality of his performance. There was a huge difference in the way Spurs played and the overall chance creation of the team when James Maddison came off the bench to be the No. 10 for the Lilywhites, and as Roberto De Zerbi and others have stated before, there is a great gulf in class between Madders and the rest in the attacking midfield.
Conor Gallagher just isn't good enough to be a playmaker
Gallagher just does not have it. Though he managed to score, the rest of his game was terrible. He had a minimal impact defensively as a ball winner, which is usually where he is an asset, and he was horrendous on the ball, creating nothing and unable to find those pockets of space and feed the forwards, who felt starved for much of the game.
So far this season, Gallagher's had three big opportunities to impress Roberto De Zerbi against Brentford, Nottingham Forest, and now Liverpool. He failed in all of them. While he was not as miserable against either Forest or the Reds as he was on Matchday 1, he was still pretty terrible as a playmaker against Liverpool. He may have had a decent scrappy game against Forest as a basic midfielder, but as a playmaker, his lack of creativity doomed Spurs to a 0-0 in that game.
Gallagher honestly took another step back against Liverpool in terms of his chance creation and quality on the ball, and Tottenham Hotspur look totally hamstrung as an attack when he is the 10. It's a position Gallagher can't keep finding himself in, and Spurs fans are not giving him any credit for the goal when he cost Spurs so many other chances to get something going as an attack.
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