Tottenham put hapless Liverpool to the sword as Harry Kane snatches double
Tottenham 4 Liverpool 1: The hosts produced their best Wembley performance of the season to sweep aside Jurgen Klopp's men
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Your support makes all the difference.On a day of so many Tottenham Hotspur goals, and so many storylines, right up to Harry Kane’s hamstring tweak at the end, there were two images that summed it up. One was the look of bewilderment on Dejan Lovren’s face. The second was the main cause of that, a player in white running very fast - and very uncontested - at the hapless Simon Mignolet’s goal.
It didn’t really matter which player in white, because there was so many, and it happened so often. Jurgen Klopp was left with no option but to haul Lovren off after just half an hour, but this didn’t stop the rot and he still had no answer to what Spurs were doing in this 4-1 thrashing, something that should now bring a lot of questions for the German.
Liverpool were simply blown away, although they did foolishly step into those gale-force winds without any kind of protection. While the Lovren situation encapsulated the German’s main problems and the ongoing chaos at the core of a defence that has left Liverpool without a Premier League win in a month, the nature of Spurs’ forward play perfectly reflected everything they’re doing right.
It was all too fitting that - of course - Kane scored after just four minutes to effectively win the game there and then, because that was also the story of the game. Liverpool just couldn’t live with Spurs’ speed. And they remarkably continued to pick up pace after that.
That Spurs continue to put in statement performances like this deserves more credit. It also bears repeating: Pochettino is working with a wage bill that is half of Liverpool’s - and an even smaller friction of the wealthier clubs’ - but has produced a side that could so completely destroy them, and without even needing to be that good. The core qualities of each goal also further emphasised the extent of Spurs’ evolution, just how impressive Pochettino has developed and improved them.
Whereas they were once a brilliant but slightly predictable pressing side in 2016, they now have so much variety and potential options, as they displayed here with a 5-3-2 that brought so many thrilling counter-attacks.
Kane’s first had already displayed the supreme alertness and efficiency of this side, as he took advantage of the mess between poor Lovren and Mignolet to skip around the goalkeeper and finish a difficult chance, but the second displayed so much else on top of that. That it came from a Liverpool corner was so symbolic, too, as Hugo Lloris - himself responsible for one brilliant save from Philippe Coutinho in this game - plucked the ball into the air, and powered it at Kane up the right wing.
Opportunity presented itself again as Lovren embarrassed himself again, this time missing a header, but what happened next was much more exhilarating. Kane rampaged up the right, squared for Heing-Min Son, who then fired it past Mignolet with the same kind of horsepower.
The most galling aspect for Liverpool was that this was what Klopp was supposed to be doing for them, what he was supposed to be producing, and on double the budget. It’s instead impossible not to conclude that they have taken a fair few backward steps, largely because of the inexplicable inability to not really confront - let alone try and fix - the problems at the heart of this side. They are just so easy to get at, and offer up so much space.
Whether the decision to put Lovren out of his misery after just half-hour may at last force the issue remains to be seen, and the reshuffle did have some positive effect on Liverpool as it quickly saw Mohamed Salah bring them back into the game. He scuffed a finish past Lloris, following a brilliant pass from Jordan Henderson.
As it was with so much else in this match, though, any sense of revival was fleeting. Liverpool just couldn’t live with the force of a midfield that didn’t have any physical defensive midfielders, and it wasn’t long until they were celebrating again. The game was effectively finished as a contest on half-time, as Dele Alli crane-kicked a volley into the back of Mignolet’s net, the fact that Joel Matip offered the cushioned header also providing another head-in-hands picture of Liverpool’s problems.
It was a procession, then, albeit one with Spurs’ players still running ferociously fast. Kane claimed the fourth goal that turned a comprehensive win into a proper thrashing, firing past Lloris after another set-piece. The only negative was that the free-scoring forward had to go off clutching his hamstring late on, but he was talking happily after the match.
The hope for Spurs is that, like so much else with this time, it passes quickly.
Liverpool and Klopp, meanwhile, require a long look at themselves. This game provided some truths that just can’t be ignored any more.
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