Champions League final: The psychology of Tottenham and Liverpool's three-week wait for destiny

At the dramatic climax of their campaigns, both sides have found themselves with time to recover, ruminate and wait

There is precious little time for footballers to pause and reflect during the Premier League’s perpetual blast of war. English clubs play, on average, far more matches per season than their European counterparts. There is no winter break. To play three matches within a single week is not uncommon. Players hurtle breathlessly from one match into the next: every victory diluted by the next demand, every loss eased by the prospect of instantaneous atonement.

Jürgen Klopp for one was blown away by the volume and frequency of matches after making the switch from North Rhine-Westphalia to Merseyside. “The number of games is the biggest difference here,” he lamented during his second season at Anfield, after a deliberating 2-2 draw at Sunderland. “Football. Football, football, football.”

So Klopp should be happy with the three-weeks of relative inactivity that have preceded one of the biggest games in the club’s history, the 2018/19 Champions League final. Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur last played on 12 May: a full twenty days before their match at the Wanda Metropolitano. It is a peculiar situation for players used to the blood and thunder of the Premier League. Suddenly, at the dramatic climax of their campaign, they have found themselves with time to recover, ruminate and wait.

There is simply no comparable situation across club football. League seasons culminate in a furious blur of fixtures. European finals typically take place two weeks after that – perhaps even after a domestic cup final has been crowbarred in. But the early start to this season’s Premier League means both Liverpool and Spurs have found themselves with an unprecedented amount of time to prepare. Is that to their benefit? Or detriment?

Bradley Busch, a chartered sports psychologist from InnerDrive, a performance consultancy that has worked with players from numerous Premier League clubs, warns that this season’s final is uniquely challenging. “The longer it takes to get to an event, and the further away it is, the more of a challenge it becomes,” he tells The Independent. “One of the things we know the brain craves is a sense of certainty, and a sense of control. And with events that are far away, you do not have as much certainty or control over them, because you cannot make them happen any quicker than they are going to happen.

“So, each day is yet another day counting down and that is when people begin to overthink things and jump to the worst-case scenario.”

Yet there are palpable benefits, too. Ignore the fact that Tottenham have traditionally been slow starters after a long break under Mauricio Pochettino – they have won less than 44 per cent of their Premier League fixtures in August, compared to Liverpool’s 67 per cent – and the break would appear to benefit them the most, considering that their thin first-team squad was utterly ravaged by injuries at the bitter end of a gruelling campaign. Jan Vertonghen, Davinson Sánchez, Danny Rose, Serge Aurier, Victor Wanyama, Harry Winks and Harry Kane all missed the final day draw with Everton. All are in contention to feature against Liverpool.

Tottenham’s players certainly believe the three-week wait is to their advantage. “It is a little bit strange to be waiting for three weeks to play the final, but we have some injuries so hopefully the wait means everybody will be back,” Moussa Sissoko told The Independent after the draw with Everton earlier this month. “Plus in the last few weeks we have played a lot of games, so we will have time to recover and hopefully be back to 100 per cent for the final. Which means we can do well.”

Son Heung-min, Tottenham’s player of the season, echoed the thoughts of his team-mate. “I think everybody needs this bit of time to rest,” he added. “We are trying to get as fit as possible for the one game we have left. And we have to make sure we give everything in this game, so that we can give ourselves the best chance of victory.”

For Spurs, the great wait is not only a chance to nurse their legions of walking wounded back to health. It is also an opportunity to address their underwhelming recent form: to press the reset button ahead of their shot at history. Liverpool have lost just once in all competitions since January, while Spurs have lost nine times – including at Anfield – during that same time period. No wonder Jamie Carragher moodily remarked to The Anfield Wrap podcast that the break has “pissed me off, a little bit, to be honest. It probably helps Spurs more than it helps us”.

Tottenham are returning to full health (Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images) (Getty)

However, Carragher’s rant failed to take into consideration the deep psychological wounds Manchester City’s title victory left on Liverpool, who acquired 97 points this Premier League season, only to end up with nothing. It is something Andy Robertson spoke illuminatingly of after the final day win over Wolves. “We need a couple of days to get over this and then it has to be forgotten about, because we cannot dwell on it,” he said. “Now we have the Champions League final to play for. Everything else is forgotten about.”

Liverpool have licked their collective wounds in Marbella, where they recently disappeared to for warm weather training and behind-closed-doors friendly. And if their momentum has been sapped, at least they too have been able to nurse back their injured, most notably Roberto Firmino, and refine the only way they know how to play: Klopp’s full-throttle 4-3-3.

Liverpool have undergone warm weather training (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Perhaps the saving grace for both sides is that they face identical issues in striking the correct balance between rest and training, with this season’s all-English matchup ensuring that both sides have faced an identical wait before a final that can perhaps be described as one of the most tactically refined in modern European history. A match that both Klopp and Pochettino have had three weeks to dream of, prepare for and agonise over.