Pochettino walking the tightrope as star wanes
Harry Kane’s struggles and a second straight defeat have left Spurs looking for answers
Nobody could have watched this and felt Spurs are better placed than Liverpool to take high rank this season. Tottenham’s fans had better hope this is a slight confidence dip and nothing to do with the club’s zero-reinforcement policy.
Three wins have descended into two defeats – at Watford and here in the rented mansion of Wembley, which Spurs were meant to be out of this weekend. The building of the new White Hart Lane continues furiously.
Team construction has halted. And while Liverpool were pummelled last season in the corresponding fixture, this time Jurgen Klopp’s side coasted to victory, missing chances and parading their £153million investment during the summer.
Spurs, castigated by Mauricio Pochettino after the Watford game (and again in the build-up to this match), have lurched from complacent at Vicarage Road to short of confidence. Less than three weeks ago they thumped Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford. With Spurs, sceptics are always looking for signs of congenital frailty – Spurs-iness – and this result will feed their argument.
World Cup fatigue, non-existent transfer activity and the becalming of Harry Kane are all fodder for the phone-ins. So is the mess made by Michel Vorm, Hugo Lloris’s stand-in, of a James Milner corner which ended with Georginio Wijnaldum heading Liverpool in front. An already hesitant Tottenham team who started with three central midfielders – a mark of respect for Liverpool – deflated quickly, and fought back earnestly only in added time, when an Erik Lamela goal lent a misleading closeness to the scoreline.
Jumping to conclusions in September is silly. Yet this has been a rotten week for Pochettino’s outfit. More building delays at the new ground, a particularly shocking drink-drive conviction for Lloris and a second league defeat four days before their Champions League campaign opens at Inter Milan.
Pochettino rarely displays strain at post-match press conferences, but in this one his words tumbled over themselves as he sought to keep the conversation tight. On these bad days, managers like to fixate on penalties not given, narrow margins and unfortunate turning points. But underneath Pochettino’s critique, there was the sure sense he is tightrope-walking. If Spurs regress after shredding the accepted wisdom about adding strength in transfer windows, the manager’s standing could drop from darling of the pundits to embattled figure losing his momentum in an impossible job.
Five games in is far too early to be applying clunky labels, but everyone knows the risk is there because Spurs have taken such an unconventional approach to improving a very good team. They have placed their faith in natural evolution, parsimony, Pochettino’s management and the star players they have managed to hang on to: Kane and Christian Eriksen especially. This works as long as Spurs are functioning at maximum output, where they pass between the lines, attack sweetly and depend on Kane to administer the coup de grace.
Tottenham’s players were more taxed by the World Cup than any in the Premier League. Seven of their starting XI here reached the semifinals. Pochettino’s men played a league-high 4,813 minutes in Russia.
Against Liverpool, Kane extended a pattern that started to become apparent in Russian cities. He looks laboured and is too easily beaten to the ball while he weighs up his options. To regain an edge, in 50-50 challenges, he is working his body into positions where an opposition foul is more likely.
“For me it’s not a quality problem, and I’m not going to put the finger on some player,” Pochettino said of Kane. Then he widened the discussion: “I told you that the challenge is massive this season. Yes, we need to give time to the players to show their best.
“We knew this situation was going to happen because the line is so thin, when you win and when you lose.”
“Because we were so good, it was difficult for Tottenham. I don’t think it’s because Tottenham played badly,” Klopp said. Very kind, but Liverpool will have left London feeling their resources are superior to those of Spurs.
Pochettino said: “I told you after Newcastle, Fulham, at Old Trafford, Watford and today. The circumstances are the circumstances, the realities are the realities, and we still need to improve a lot in this type of game if we are to be contenders. After three victories it was all fantastic. After two defeats, it’s not a disaster.”
Inter Milan and Brighton, next weekend, will test Pochettino’s assertion that the Watford defeat should not be conflated with this loss to Liverpool. As the strains multiply, Kane will need to take another look at his struggle to regain his form and seek answers beyond mere perseverance.
Trying hard is admirable, but is not restoring his spark. Another physical or psychological answer is needed.