Nothing negative about Mourinho’s Spurs even if he’s no purist’s dream
LIVERPOOL 2 Tottenham 1. Or, as some chose to frame it, football 2 anti-football 1, Klopp 2 Mourinho 1, a victory for good over evil, optimism over cynicism, taking a road trip over parking the bus.
Except Liverpool prevailed via a deflection and a set-piece, while Tottenham scored the goal of the game. Spurs always seem to score the goal of the game – and not only when they keep a clean sheet.
Because to try to file this Tottenham team in a box marked negative or dull is like trying to contain Heung-min Son and Steven Bergwijn – it’s impossible to get the lid on. Low risk, definitely. Low on excitement and attacking threat? Not a bit of it.
Wednesday’s visitors to Anfield managed just six touches in the Liverpool box – as opposed to 41 for the hosts. But when those touches include Son’s sublime finish, Bergwijn’s shot against the inside of the post, the Dutchman’s other giltedged chance, Harry Kane’s header or his curler which may or may not have tickled Alisson’s gloves before slipping agonisingly wide, the case for quality over quantity becomes a strong one. The calling card of Spurs’ attack under Jose Mourinho is economy; incisive bursts, rapier-like thrusts where it hurts the most. They may be happy to sit deep and let their opponents dominate possession but when Tottenham do have the ball, there is no team that’s more forward thinking. It is an approach which naturally jars when highpressing, possessionbased passing football has become not just the norm, but the gold standard – the game in its purest form.
But at a time when Manchester City’s attacking play is mired in sideways passing and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are drowning in their own complexity, Spurs are showing an alternative way, a different form of attack. It is not to everyone’s tastes and it won’t only be Liverpool fans who think the corinthian thing to do when visiting Anfield is to go toe-totoe with Mane, Salah and Firmino, take your beating and thank them for a jolly good game.
It won’t always work, either. There’s something of the knockout stages of
an international tournament about Mourinho’s approach, where style is sacrificed on the altar of end result. But in tournament football both teams want the same thing. Can Tottenham’s rope-a-dope tactics work, say, at home
to Burnley, when you really need a win to stay in the title race but the Clarets would happily take a point?
We may find out, or Mourinho may change tack – trailing 1-0 at Anfield he said ‘at half-time we move a little bit
the pieces’ and the result was a more even game.
Or, as is often the case, Tottenham’s challenge may fizzle out. But even then, whatever the puritans try and tell you, it’s been fun while it lasted.