RED-FACED & RAGGED
Pochettino gives Klopp a masterclass in creating title contenders with Liverpool’s defensive frailties exposed yet again
TWO years into Jurgen Klopp’s reign as Liverpool manager and the questions outnumber the answers.
This was embarrassing, humiliating. Most tellingly, the away end was almost deserted by the final whistle.
When the fiercely loyal Liverpool fans have given up hope, you know you are in big trouble. And they are entitled to ask where their club is going under Klopp.
Yes, they were up against a Spurs team on fire, Harry Kane looks unstoppable and Mauricio Pochettino has built genuine title contenders.
That is where Liverpool should be, yet they find themselves with a negative goal difference and in ninth place below Burnley in the Premier League table.
When thrashed 5-0 at Manchester City, they could offer up Sadio Mane’s red card as an excuse. There were none here.
Dejan Lovren was the sacrificial lamb, brutally hooked after 31 minutes with Liverpool already in tatters. But the reality was it did not get much better. Their only relief came when Spurs eased off, the damage already done and no way back for the visitors.
Klopp has failed to address the biggest issue –his defence. One clean sheet since August and 15 goals conceded in five away games, the worst record in the league. There is no chance of being title contenders with those kind of statistics.
Lovren was awful and those early goals undermined Liverpool’s belief and approach. Keeper Simon Mignolet’s errors did not help, while Joel Matip was horribly exposed and the only Reds player to emerge with any real credit was Mohamed Salah.
It was evident why Klopp broke Liverpool’s transfer record for Salah, yet the cost of not signing a top-class defender could be even greater.
To put all the eggs in one basket with Virgil van Dijk now seems a horrible mistake. Having missed out on him, Liverpool should have looked elsewhere.
Instead, they were left with Lovren and Matip trying to stop Tottenham’s frightening forward line.
Contrast that to Pochettino. He has been in charge at Spurs for just over three years, made much faster progress than Klopp and has found, in Davinson Sanchez, another topclass central defender. The £42million buy from Ajax already looks good value.
Title challenges are built on solid a defence. Tottenham’s central trio, Sanchez, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, were strong and commanding.
Liverpool’s defence was an accident waiting to happen and it took Spurs just four minutes to exploit that.
Kieran Trippier’s ball over the top split Liverpool’s backline, Lovren was undone, Kane went round Mignolet and it was 1-0.
The next goal was even worse from a Liverpool perspective.
Keeper Hugo Lloris launched a huge throw, Lovren missed the ball in midfield, Kane raced through and squared for Heung-Min Son to coolly slot home. Son would have made it three but for the crossbar. Liverpool found a way back when Kane was dispossessed by Philippe Coutinho, Jordan Henderson’s through ball set Salah away and his pace took him clear before he scuffed a shot past Lloris, who was slow off his line.
Then, in front of a new Premier League record attendance of 80,827, Klopp killed Lovren. There were gasps in the ground when Lovren’s number went up, Alex OxladeChamberlain came on and a reshuffle saw Emre Can go to right-back and Joe Gomez into the middle.
They looked slightly more secure but any thoughts of a comeback vanished in first-half injury time. Christian Eriksen floated in a freekick and Matip’s poor headed clearance was a gift for Dele Alli, who drove home.
Tottenham’s fourth came on 56 minutes. Mignolet’s punch from a free-kick was weak, Vertonghen’s shot was cleared off the line by Roberto Firmino and Kane slammed in the rebound for his eighth league goal of the season.
Kane went off late on holding his left thigh, with Pochettino insisting it was nothing serious.
But it looks serious for Klopp.