Spurs must bounce back from ‘rude awakening’ at Watford, says Eriksen
Christian Eriksen has warned Liverpool to expect a Tottenham backlash after their ‘rude awakening’ at Watford.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men were still basking in the glory of their 3-0 victory over Manchester United when they arrived at Vicarage Road, where goals from Troy Deeney and Craig Cathcart brought them crashing back down to earth.
Liverpool sit at the summit of the Premier League table after their flawless start to the season but Eriksen believes the Wembley clash offers the perfect shot at redemption.
“We have to get on the horse again and we know Liverpool is a big, big game against a team who have been one of the best this season,” he said. “It was a rude awakening but we are our own biggest critics.
“After the Manchester United game when the stats and the score showed how good we were the manager said, ‘we can’t fly too high’.
“Of course we can do better but sometimes you have to have your confidence knocked. Then you have to get back up and stay up and that’s what we have to do now.
“I think and I hope it will be a good game to watch, the games between Spurs and Liverpool haven’t been very open but they are two teams who want to play forward and want to attack.”
Jurgen Klopp splurged in the transfer market during the summer window, spending over £160m on the likes of Fabinho, Naby Keita, Allison and Xherdan Shaqiri. In stark contrast, Spurs did not spend a penny, and kept the same playing squad that has earned them a place in the Champions League for the last three seasons. Harry Kane, Jan Vertonghen and Eriksen are just three of the players who have been thrust back into action on the back of their exploits at the World Cup as Pochettino’s weary team attempt to fight fatigue to maintain their Premier League position.
“We’ve had the same team for the last three seasons and we’ve been up there so we should be up there again, that’s our aim,” said Eriksen. “They can buy as many players as they want but we have the same squad and we’re going to go for it so it’ll be an intense game. We’ll see where we end up at the end of the season, we’re looking forward to it.”
Many are linking the lack of transfer action with the construction of their new cutting edge 62,062 seater stadium as costs spiral above the £800m mark.
The Liverpool clash was supposed to be the first competitive match played at the new ground, but delays due to fire safety and nearby housing plans have pushed the official opening back to an undetermined date.
“We can’t do anything, we can’t help build it,” added Eriksen. “We could but I don’t think it would speed up the process. We know as little as everyone else really, we don’t really know what’s going on but hopefully it will be done soon enough and we can play there because it will be amazing.
“It’s an amazing build which is going to take time, it’s disappointing and we should have a date. The Spurs
management and Levy won’t be too happy that it’s happened but you can’t do anything about it at the moment. Hopefully we can speed up the process and get it done as soon as possible.”